As Donald Trump diligently picks through the Republican Party looking to hire only the most ridiculous and the most extreme—after all, hiring Trump party planners and whoever gave Donald Trump his last physical only gets you so far—he has now welcomed George W. Bush-era mustache John Bolton to his team. Bolton, who now heads Trump's National Security Council, is an avid hawk with an open contempt for both diplomacy and international relations in general. And he's apparently cleaning house; the first to go was the council's spokesman, Michael Anton:
Bolton insisted on the departure in a lunch meeting last week with Trump’s previous national security adviser, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, according to a Republican close to the White House. Other changes are likely to follow, the source said, with Bolton expected to purge staff in order to bring in others more loyal to him, as well as to carry out a top priority for Trump: ridding the NSC of those suspected of “leaking” information to the news media.
Anton, the source added, was the likeliest source of one of the most humiliating leaks for Trump in recent weeks: the disclosure to The Washington Post that Trump had specifically been warned, in all capital letters, “DO NOT CONGRATULATE” Vladimir Putin on securing another term as Russia’s president.
Well if that's true Anton deserves a medal of honor, right? It's seldom we get to see such an elegant intersection of two of the most urgent news stories of the day, the president's curious admiration of a murderous Russian kleptocrat and Donald Trump's own spectacular, bungling stupidity.
The White House is being curiously wishy-washy about Bolton's role in that specific departure, which is odd because there seems no dispute that Bolton will indeed be bringing in his own "team," making room for them by expelling others. Today, we learned that homeland security adviser was also tossed from his post at Bolton's insistence—days after he appeared on the Sunday shows as the Trump administration's top voice on the newest Syrian chemical weapons attack.
Two sources familiar with Bossert's departure said while Bolton did not have a personal problem with Bossert, he wanted to put his own team in place. It is not unusual for a new national security adviser to replace officials with his own team, but Bolton has yet to announce any new hires to the National Security Council -- instead pushing out at least two senior officials in recent days.
One of the sources could not explain the abrupt nature of Bossert's departure, an alumnus of President George W. Bush's administration who is well liked by most White House officials.
"This is incredibly jarring," a person in the White House said.
The almost certain outcome of these moves is the installation of a national security team far more hawkish and interventionist than the current one; this, too, is an odd turn of events. Trump himself has reportedly been stewing over the American deployments to Syria, wanting his generals to withdraw as soon as possible; Bolton and his allies are infamous hawks, and Bolton's tenure in the Bush administration was marked by his vociferous defense of the Iraq invasion and public scorn for diplomatic efforts.
Like Bolton, Trump is derisive of diplomacy. But Bolton's eagerness to drop bombs is directly opposed to Trump's stated desire to reduce U.S. involvement in world affairs; it's not clear how this is going to mesh. The likely answer is that it won't, any more than Trump's previous teams have been able to translate his whims into policy, and Bolton, too, will find himself in the doghouse before long. Bolton also has the habit of making enemies, which will no doubt hinder his ability to truly crack down on "leaks" from the administration team.
But that's a while off. In the meantime, get ready for a more aggressive and more eagerly incompetent national security team. That has been John Bolton's trademark; the man is a shit-stirrer first and foremost.