Here’s more from USA Today
— President Trump’s new national security adviser John Bolton minces no words about whether he thinks his boss and Russian President Vladimir Putin can be friends.
In speeches, interviews and op-eds, Bolton has called Putin a liar who aligns himself with America’s enemies, and whose country is a long-term strategic threat to the United States.
Bolton said the Russian leader lied to Trump when they met last July at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, and Putin denied interfering in the U.S. elections. Trump later said he believed Putin.
Here's how Bolton thinks the U.S. should deal with Putin's Russia:
Russian meddling was an 'act of war':
“Attempting to undermine America’s constitution is far more than just a quotidian covert operation. It is in fact a casus belli, a true act of war, and one Washington will never tolerate,” Bolton said.
Bolton spoke about Russian meddling again after special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian citizens for setting up servers in the U.S. and facilities in St. Petersburg, Russia, to orchestrate an influence operation in the run-up to the election.
“This is a perfect time for President Trump to pivot to make it clear he’s not going to let Russia or any other country meddle in our elections,” Bolton said in a Feb. 21 speech at the Daniel Morgan Graduate School of National Security in Washington.
Bolton’s advice on how the U.S. respond was emblematic of his philosophy overall:
“We should respond in cyberspace and elsewhere. I don’t think the response should be proportionate. I think it should be very disproportionate. Because deterrence works when you tell your adversary that they will experience enormous cost when they impose costs on you. That’s causes them to say we’re not even going to think about it.”