US President-elect Donald Trump should not consider former George W. Bush diplomat and neoconservative John Bolton to be secretary of state because he has a hawkish record that includes supporting the invasion of Iraq and calling for all-out war in Syria despite Russia’s presence there, US Senator Rand Paul said on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The fact that Russia has had a base in Syria for 50 years, Paul continued, has not deterred Bolton from calling for an "all out, no holds barred" war in Syria, not to mention the fact he backed the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

"Bolton is a longtime member of the failed Washington elite that Trump vowed to oppose, hell-bent on repeating virtually every foreign policy mistake the US has made in the last 15 years — particularly those Trump promised to avoid as president," Paul wrote in an op-ed piece for Rare news.

No man, Rand argued, is more out of touch with the situation in the Middle East or more dangerous to US national security than Bolton.

"John Bolton more often stood with Hillary Clinton and against what Donald Trump has advised," Rand claimed.

Rand also noted that, according to American Conservative magazine publisher Jon Utley, Bolton was a leading brain behind the neoconservative "war-and-conquest agenda," well before the Iraq war.

Bolton himself has used every privilege to avoid serving in Vietnam, but has no problem with sending American sons and daughters to die "wherever his neoconservative impulse leads us."

"President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on changing our disastrous foreign policy. To appoint John Bolton would be a major first step toward breaking that promise," Paul continued.

Bolton has been identified by CNN and the New York Times as another leading prospect for secretary of state in a Trump administration.

On Monday, Rudolph Giuliani claimed Bolton would be a good choice for secretary of state. Bolton served as the US Ambassador to the United Nations during President George W. Bush’s administration.