Less than two weeks after blowing a gasket over Trump’s appointment of Kash Patel to head the FBI, John Bolton is back in the news again:
“Trump-Trudeau: John Bolton says PM should ‘kiss the ring,’” by Spencer Van Dyk, CTV News, December 11, 2024:
If Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants to get on U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s good side for the sake of a smooth bilateral relationship, he’ll likely have to be openly deferential, says former U.S. National Security Advisor, John Bolton.
“It’s always possible, if somebody kisses the ring. I mean, that’s what Trump likes,” Bolton told CTV Power Play host Vassy Kapelos in an interview airing Wednesday, when asked if he thinks it’s possible for Trudeau and Trump to forge a better relationship than during the former president’s first term….
“I think, as the saying goes, ‘Trump is kidding on the straight,’” Bolton said, when asked whether the incoming president’s comments should be interpreted in jest or not. “If asked, he’d say, ‘of course, it’s a joke, and, you know, Justin and I have a very good relationship,’ but I think it’s an indication of what he thinks of Trudeau.”
“And it’s mean, it’s sort of a playground kind of thing, but that’s Donald Trump,” Bolton added.
Bolton served as National Security Advisor from 2018-2019, during Trump’s first term as president.
“Well, it’s not pleasant news, but the thing to do is flatter Trump and try and work on in that way,” he also said, pointing to former Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, as the world leader who he believes was “most successful at dealing with Trump.”…
As Robert Spencer stated in his article “John Bolton is So Upset About Kash Patel, He May Need Psychiatric Help”:
No one more imitating a stuck pig more convincingly than John Bolton, the establishment Republican’s establishment Republican, who has decided that the Patel appointment is a good time to try out his sky-is-falling act.
Bolton isn’t his former self as he seeks desperately to regain his political footing. It’s difficult to know whether Bolton is being facetious in regard to Trudeau, given the absurdity of his advice, or whether he’s sarcastically attempting to raise the ire of Trudeau et al as a means to get revenge on Trump, while also insulting the late former Japanese prime minister, a diplomatic miscalculation.
Trump is seeking results at both the northern and southern borders. Yet Bolton implies that the way to get along with Trump is not to produce those results, but to “kiss his ring.”
Bolton also asserted that Trump is ignorant about tariffs:
He thinks that the exporting company pays the tariff.
He doesn’t realize it’s the American importer that pays it and then passes the cost on to American consumers….So good luck with trying to educate him on that.
It isn’t quite as simple as Bolton says. In short, the company exporting the item (i.e., from Canada) that is facing greater tariffs could be hard hit, because the receiver on the U.S. end would likely demand that the Canadian supplier lower prices in order to offset the tariffs, or otherwise lose business. Another option: American importers may find it more profitable to get their imports from another country that isn’t subject to high tariffs.
In Canada, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said back in April that “the immigration system under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is ruined.” And that because of Trudeau’s incompetence, he opened “the floodgates in a way that was disconnected from the number of homes to house people, and the amount of jobs to employ them.” Last year, Canada saw over a million people enter the country, which made for “the highest increase in population since 1957.” This has been catastrophic for the country. The onus should fall solely on Trudeau.
As for Trump’s jokes at Trudeau’s expense, they were provoked by Trudeau himself. Political scientist Aaron Ettinger stated prior to Trump’s election:
If Trump is elected and Trudeau remains prime minister, they would be restarting the relationship from a place of mistrust.
That’s because there is a history that Bolton ignores, as he risks further inflaming US – Canada relations. I included info about the Trump-Trudeau history HERE.
Bolton’s history with Trump, however, is much worse than Trudeau’s with Trump.
What would Bolton, one of the dumbest people in Washington, know? Wasn’t he the person who so stupidly said, on television, “Libyan solution”, when describing what the U.S. was going to do for North Korea? I’ve got plenty of other Bolton “stupid stories”.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 20, 2020
Bolton has an axe to grind with Trump, as do many RINOs and Democrats. The Democrats’ weaponizing of the justice system against Trump while RINOs cheered just wasn’t enough. They will come out in droves to exploit the current potential crisis in US-Canada relations in order to get a swing in at Trump. Yet they offer no level-headed solutions.
somehistory says
bolton wants so badly to be relevant. He craves attention, to be seen as intelligent, informed and important. bolton has an ‘I’ problem. And a stupid mustache..
The photo makes me think “walrus.”
Mike says
He has often been compared with the animated character Yosemite Sam from the “Looney Toons” cartoons.
Some say he has a similar temperament as well.
Sir Wm says
Bolton is DS… he is soon to be a has been! 😁
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Someone who talks to Bolton should ask him, “Given a blank slate, how would you design US foreign policy, and where would you station troops? Who are our friends, and who are our enemies?”
If he counts Russia as an implacable enemy, and Turkey as an ally, someone should plagiarize Obama and tell him that the 80s called: they want their foreign policy back. Even at the height of the Cold War, we didn’t have both Moscow and Beijing allied against us, the way we do now
Ralph says
Does anyone care what Bolton says or thinks?