John Bolton's chief grievance is that the Trump White House was not structured in such a way that enabled Bolton to pursue his lifelong goal of projecting a psychotically hawkish version of US power all over the world. And of course liberals are eating it right up
One problem: Mike Pompeo, for example, has demonstrated an ability accomodate Trump's personal eccentricities to a sufficient degree that he CAN pursue a psychotically hawkish projection of US power, although maybe a degree or two less cartoonishly psychotic than Bolton's ideal
Bolton frames his critique in ideological terms -- bemoaning that Trump is not a "conservative Republican" -- but plenty of conservatives have had no problem at all instrumentalizing Trump to advance their interests. So perhaps Bolton's inability to do this is just his own fault
When Bolton denounces Trump for "incompetence," what he's really denouncing is that Trump has not instituted a streamlined policy process whereby psychotically hawkish objectives can be seamlessly and frictionlessly pursued -- a stark departure from previous GOP Administrations
When Bolton reports that Trump doesn't know Finland is an independent country or doesn't read his briefings -- that's probably true. Stuff like that has been widely reported. But Bolton wouldn't care about this kind of "incompetence" if Trump just signed off on his initiatives
And when Bolton warns that Trump is putting the country
"in danger," he regards it as "dangerous" for the US to not be a professionally-run hegemonic power projecting a coherent policy of omni-directional global belligerence. He's right that Trump undermines this goal
"in danger," he regards it as "dangerous" for the US to not be a professionally-run hegemonic power projecting a coherent policy of omni-directional global belligerence. He's right that Trump undermines this goal
