Former Ambassador John Bolton: Trump Must Scrap Iran Deal
President Donald Trump will have to override his advisers if he wants to make good on a campaign promise to abandon the Iran nuclear agreement [after renewing the agreement twice], according to former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, who published a draft proposal for exiting the accord on Monday.
Bolton alluded to a rift within the administration over whether the United States should scrap the landmark deal, and said he was recently denied a meeting with Trump on the issue after staff changes at the White House.
“It’s a question of who prevails here: the president or his advisers,” Bolton told the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday. “Based on what’s been reported in the press, I think [Trump] does believe this deal is detrimental to American interests, so if he wants to get out of it I’m providing a way to do it.”
Bolton, once considered for secretary of state and national security adviser during the presidential transition, said in an op-ed published Monday in National Review he was asked last month by Trump’s now-ousted strategist, Steve Bannon, to draft a policy proposal on how the United States could withdraw from the nuclear accord.
After Bannon’s departure, Bolton said he was compelled to go public with his blueprint since he no longer enjoys regular access to Trump and can’t deliver it to the president himself.
“I made the request and it was turned down to see him most recently,” he said, though he declined to comment further. “I don’t really have anything more to say other than what I put in the National Review piece. I don’t think the specifics are that pertinent.”
