John Bolton has spoken publicly for the first time since he was sacked as Donald Trump’s national security adviser, delivering some remarks about the ‘grave and growing’ threat of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. He said that Kim Jong-un would not give up his nukes ‘under current circumstances’ – a swipe at Trump’s policy of attempting to charm the dictator of Pyongyang. Bolton has made other, private criticisms of Trump’s policies. At a Gatestone Institute luncheon last month, he said that inviting the Taliban to Camp David was a ‘terrible’ idea and ‘disrespectful’ to the 9/11 families; that pursuing a peace deal with the Taliban didn’t make ‘any sense’; and that any talks with Iran would be ‘doomed to failure’. But throughout all this, he has remained conspicuously silent about the Ukrainian affair.

One veteran political consultant in Washington tells Cockburn that Trump is afraid Bolton is the mastermind behind all the damaging leaks on his secret dealings with the Ukrainians; the whistleblower’s Deep Throat, if you will. This, he believes, is why Trump’s cheerleader in the Senate, Lindsay Graham, keeps asking who was feeding the CIA whistleblower who came forward with details of a call between Trump and the Ukrainian president (in which Trump asked for dirt on the Democratic frontrunner, Joe Biden). Graham tweeted: ‘It is imperative we find out which White House official talked to the whistleblower and why. Why didn’t they lodge the complaint?’ The price of Graham’s support, the political consultant thought, would be an eventual military strike on Iran.





He went on: ‘Watch Bolton’s role in all this. If he is in mix then Trump has real problems. I hear that Trump was obsessed with Bolton when he [Trump] was in New York. When Trump says the real whistleblower is a spy and should be treated as such, he’s threatening Bolton. Bolton would not play his game in Korea, Iran, Russia or Ukraine. This is Trump’s Achilles heel.’ All of this is pure speculation but interesting speculation nonetheless. The next time Bolton pops up to make a speech criticizing his old boss, perhaps someone should ask him if he was aware of contents of the call with the Ukrainian president back in July – and if he was, did he do anything about it?

Got a tip for Cockburn? Email cockburn@spectator.us.