So I woke up this morning to my phone melting from all the messages about this Bolton article. Having now read the entire article, let's go through the piece which was actually very interesting across a variety of spectrums. 1/n wsj.com/articles/john-…
First, Bolton must see this as his retirement check because while not a DC insider do not see any administration hiring him ever again after this. He savages pretty much anyone that has been on the China beat and is complementary to no one GOP or Democrat. Just interesting 2/n
Second, it is interesting the stream of Tweets of what people are highlighting from the article. The two most highlighted statements are Trump comments on Uyghurs and his use of the phrase "personal interest" or something close to it. More about Uyghurs later but of note 3/n
Twitterati have taken that to mean corruption or interests like hotels but in the excerpt, it is perfectly clear Bolton using that phrase as distinction between statesman and candidate (i.e. best decision for the nation vs. securing votes in specific areas). Bolton is 4/n
understandably (from his POV) appalled Trump would use those considerations writing at one point "I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my White House tenure that wasn’t driven by re-election calculations." The push pull pressures on a first 5/n
Term president are enormous to make sure you keep your base happy but also make good decisions for the country. This pressure has frequently been written about by insiders and academics alike. To be shocked that this is anything new or unique in how politicians make decision 6/n
Somehow fails to grasp how presidents in democratic systems operate. People have also been shocked with the comment about buying stuff about asking Xi for help to get re-elected by buying US farm products. This is saying the stuff in your head out loud but nothing more 7/n
We can absolutely guarantee both the Chinese and US side have drawn up analysis of those exact issues and districts it would hit. Remember it was Xi that clearly sent a message with those tariffs trying to HURT Trump re-election chances. What makes this even more tasty 8/n
Is that this undercuts the argument made by the people who believe China wants Trump to win again. As has been pointed out by the people who believe China wants Trump to win, China is not living up to its commitments. In other words, China is NOT helping Trump win. 9/n
The last major highlight is the comment about Uyghurs. I perfectly willing to believe Trump said it. NEWSFLASH: Trump says stupid stuff, speaks off the cuff too much, water is wet, life, death, and taxes. Even though the bill was long in the works by lots of people 10/n
It needs to be noted that the Uyghur Human Rights Bill was signed into law. Most importantly, and this has always been my personal focus, the Trump administration on policy has been the most pro-Taiwan, pro-Hong Kong, and pro-Uyghur administration probably ever. When you 11/n
Work with different people and groups on addressing the China threat, everyone has good and bad motives/reasons/ideas for taking part. I'm focused on the results. Taking as a given (i.e. not disputing the Bolton account), doesn't change what I consider fundamental outcome 12/n
Couple of wrap up points. First, underlying Bolton's writing is that he couldn't lead a coordinated policy response to China AND that Trump was not hawkish enough. This may speak to internal management but do not fail to note Bolton is essentially talking his book 13/n
Second, also note that Bolton wrecks some of the other widely held talking points such as the lack of pandemic office which as he writes had the same people doing the same things was just different lines of reporting. He also savages Obama China policy. In short, I thought.. 15/n
Actually it was very interesting on a variety of levels, very well written, and provided at least as much insight to Bolton as it did to the Trump WH. That said the sensationalism of breathless gasps wildly overdone as usual. Much less exciting than breathless Twitter headline.
