Update(1418ET): President Trump’s first comments since the early morning FBI raid on John Bolton’s Maryland home and D.C. office haven’t disappointed. Trump made clear he’s no fan, but that he didn’t personally get involved in the crackdown over allegations of mishandling or keeping classified documents.
“I’m not a fan of John Bolton. He’s a real sort of lowlife… I know nothing about it,” the president said of his own former national security adviser from the first term, who he’s long described suffers major Trump derangement syndrome.
Trump repeated that he tries to “stay out of that stuff” and that he “purposefully” didn’t want to get involved when commenting on the morning raid on Bolton’s home. The mainstream media has been quick to assume this must be a politically-motivated action against Bolton coming from the top of the administration:
“I know nothing about it. I just saw it this morning. I tell Pam [Bondi], and I tell the group, I don’t want to know about it. You have to do what you have to do,” Trump said.
“He is not a smart guy. But he could be a very unpatriotic guy. We’re going to find out,” Trump said.
The president then noted that his own Mar-a-Lago estate got raided in 2022, over the handling of presidential and classified documents: “They went through everything you can imagine,” Trump said.
CNN has reported the following new confirmation as follows: “The FBI conducted a court-authorized search at former national security adviser John Bolton’s home and office as part of a renewed investigation into whether he disclosed classified information in his 2020 book, according to two people familiar with the matter.”
And more: “CNN observed FBI personnel at Bolton’s house in the Washington, DC, area on Friday morning. They were seen speaking to a person on the porch of the house, and at least four to six agents were seen going inside. Some of the agents took bags out of the vehicles to bring inside, but nothing was seen coming out of the residence.”
The two have traded barbs for years, with Trump also highlighting that Bolton is a ‘sick’ neocon and many other epithets:
“Many of the ridiculous statements he attributes to me were never made, pure fiction,” Trump said in a social media post June 18, 2020. “Just trying to get even for firing him like the sick puppy he is!”
And there was this memorable one:
“Wacko John Bolton’s ‘exceedingly tedious’(New York Times) book is made up of lies & fake stories. Said all good about me, in print, until the day I fired him,” Trump said in a separate social media post on June 18, 2020. “A disgruntled boring fool who only wanted to go to war. Never had a clue, was ostracized & happily dumped. What a dope!“
Lock that Bastard up for life