Donald Trump's historic assassination of a notorious Iranian terrorist was driven largely by the then-president's ego, his former national security adviser said Tuesday.
John Bolton, appearing on CNN's "The Source" with Kaitlan Collins to plug the paperback version featuring a new foreword to his 2020 book "The Room Where It Happened," discussed the rationale that went into the ordering of the drone strike killing of Iran's Revolutionary Guard’s Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Bolton discussed the 45th president's inability to keep focus on the task at hand and a massive blind spot that is his oversized ego.
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"Among the many other defects, he listens to the last person he talks to," said Bolton. "He looks at decisions through the prism of how they will be reported for his performance in the press not for what the outcome is."
When it came to moving on the intelligence to take out Soleimani, Bolton recalls that for Trump the intention was to get good press.
"He did order the early exit of the head of the Iranian Quds Force, but in listening to him talk about his views on why that was important it was clear to me it wasn't simply to eliminate this major figure who was the leader of Iranian terrorist actions but because it was such a big event he would get enormous credit for it."
At the start of 2020, then-President Donald Trump delivered a speech from Mar-a-Lago confirming he eliminated the Iranian general.
The intention to prop himself up at every turn doesn't sit well with Bolton.
He admits there is some vanity when it comes to a politician's legacy; yet with Trump it was the central source behind the critical moment of life and death.
"Every politician thinks of his position, but only Trump I think in American history can be said is a president who thinks only of its effect on him."
