Former national security adviser John Bolton turned over a copy of his upcoming manuscript to the White House for review on Dec. 30. That was just three days before Donald Trump ordered military advisers to take the “most extreme option” and kill Iranian Major Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Of course, that doesn’t prove that Trump was willing to start a war with Iran in hopes of buying the silence of longtime Iran hawk Bolton … but it is awfully coincidental timing.
As it turns out, this isn’t the only instance in which it’s possible to draw such a connection with Trump’s actions. Because one of the leaks from Bolton’s manuscript shows Trump making a 180-degree change on sanctioning a Turkish bank, just as he was facing heat over his decision to betray America’s Kurdish allies.
On Monday, The New York Times let slip some additional information from Bolton’s manuscript. Included was some shared concern between Bolton and Attorney General William Barr over Trump’s constant willingness to endorse the actions of autocratic rulers, especially when those dictators were sending mash notes to Trump. But one event detailed in the Times article has an interesting confluence with other world events.
That sequence starts with a series of calls between Trump and Turkish strongman Tayyip Erdogan in 2018. At the center of these conversations was Halkbank, a state-owned Turkish bank involved in money laundering and helping Iran get around international sanctions championed by the United States—sanctions that Trump repeatedly pointed to, even as he was breaking the Iranian nuclear treaty.
According to Bolton, Barr recounted how Erdogan leaned on Trump to go easy on Halkbank. The Turkish dictator also acquired a Republican fundraiser to champion his cause in D.C. This effort appeared to be effective—so effective that Erdogan even told reporters that Trump was with him.
Then, after Trump unexpectedly betrayed Kurdish allies in early October 2019, he faced heavy criticism for bowing to Erdogan and giving over a broad strip of Syria to Turkish control. Reports out of the region included Iranian-backed militias working with Turkish military to massacre Kurdish civilians along highways.
It was only at that point that the Justice Department reversed course and indicted Halkbank. This certainly suggests the possibility that Trump allowed the prosecution to go forward not because the DOJ had acquired new evidence, but because he needed something to make it appear that he was taking a harder line with Turkey. In fact, since this happened after Trump had exchanged a call with Erdogan, there’s the possibility that Halkbank was a compromise offered up to give Trump something to point at, even as Turkish forces occupied traditional Kurdish territory.
That may not be the case, but it absolutely demands investigation. Because what the Bolton manuscript shows in detail is that there is almost no area in which Trump can be trusted to act in the national interest, rather than for his personal benefit.