John Bolton served as U.S. National Security Advisor during Donald Trump’s first term. John Kiriakou says he publicly predicted Bolton’s 2019 departure from the administration based on nothing more than informal chatter with friends inside the White House and his own analysis, reasoning that Trump places an unusually high premium on loyalty — a form of loyalty that, for Trump, means never being seen publicly contradicting him.[1]
A habit of contradicting the president
Kiriakou notes Bolton contradicted Trump “all the time,” citing a Washington Post report that Bolton had joked that if he had his way, the United States would currently be involved in four different wars.[2] He gives a concrete example: Trump publicly offered to meet with Iranian officials with no preconditions, a statement with no precedent from any U.S. president — only for Bolton to contradict him two hours later, saying there were, in fact, preconditions.[3]