(Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

(CNSNews.com) - President Donald Trump told an informal news conference on Thursday that he has 15 candidates to replace John Bolton as National Security Adviser.

"A lot of people want the job. And we-- it's a great job," Trump said. "It's great because it's a lot of fun to work with Donald Trump, and it's very easy, actually, to work with me. You know why it's easy? Because I make all the decisions. They don't have to work."

Trump said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will not serve simultaneously as National Security Adviser, although Trump said he considered it.

"I think he's fantastic. But I actually spoke to Mike Pompeo about that and he decided -- and he and I -- I get along with him so well. We have a lot of the same views and a couple of little different views. But he likes the idea of having somebody in there with him, and I do too.

"I think that we'll have an answer for you. We have--we have 15 candidates. Everybody wants it badly, as you can imagine. And we'll probably next week sometime make that decision. We look forward to that."

Trump's comment that he makes all the decisions recalls something that President George W. Bush said in 2006, as he rejected suggestions that he fire his Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld:

"I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation," Bush told reporters. "But I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."