Former national security adviser John Bolton said Tuesday he will not be intimidated by the withdrawal of his security detail, which was revoked by President Trump in January.
The measure followed an Iranian plot on his life uncovered by federal officials.
“I feel … concerned about that, more than anything else,” Bolton said of losing his security detail, speaking during a Monday event where he reflected on Trump’s meeting with the president of South Korea.
“But you know it’s the environment we operate in, and you can either just be overwhelmed by it, or keep going. So I plan to keep going,” he added.
An FBI raid took place Friday at his home outside of Washington, where his wife’s phone was confiscated while agents met him at his office.
Investigators said they were in search of classified documents, while Vice President Vance denied that retribution allegations motivated the probe.
Bolton’s cable news appearances often rebuke the president’s peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and frequently reference Trump as a pawn in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s game.
Before the start of Trump’s second administration, the former national security adviser published a book titled “The Room Where It Happened” in which he accused the leader of prioritizing his reelection over other objectives, even if it meant endangering or weakening the nation.
“I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasn’t driven by reelection calculations,” Bolton wrote.
Five years later, Trump’s return to the Oval Office has resurfaced discussions about his unusual relationship with Putin as he attempts to end the war in Ukraine.
His campaign promise to cease the fighting has faltered, and some Republicans, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), have raised concerns with the ongoing conflict abroad.
Still, Trump’s hopes of a successful ceasefire continue following a summit in Alaska with Putin, and a European roundtable with world leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, at the White House days later.
The president said Bolton’s comments show he’s “unpatriotic,” but the national security adviser has pressed ahead with his critiques.
“President Donald Trump’s Ukraine policy is no more coherent today than it was last Friday when his administration executed search warrants against my home and office,” Bolton wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, titled “Trump’s utterly incoherent Ukraine strategy.”
“Collapsing in confusion, haste, and the absence of any discernible meeting of the minds among Ukraine, Russia, several European countries, and America, Trump’s negotiations may be in their last throes, along with his Nobel Peace Prize campaign,” he added.
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