Pompeo, Mnuchin Hold Press Briefing After John Bolton's Abrupt Exit

President Donald Trump said he fired his hawkish national security adviser, John Bolton, after disagreeing “strongly” with many of his positions, ending a tumultuous tenure marked by multiple setbacks in U.S. foreign policy.

Bolton, known for his hardline approach to U.S. adversaries including Iran, North Korea and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, was the third person to formally occupy the White House’s highest-ranking national security job under Trump.

“I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House,” Trump said in a pair of tweets. “I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week.”

Bolton had been scheduled to take part in a White House press briefing Tuesday on terrorism. Minutes after Trump’s announcement, Bolton contradicted the president on Twitter, saying that he had offered to resign Monday night and Trump deferred the discussion.

Trump and Bolton had disagreed on “many, many issues,” White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said. Most recently, Bolton had advised the president against a meeting he had planned with the Taliban at Camp David to complete negotiations to end the war in Afghanistan. Bolton was also skeptical of Trump’s overtures to Kim Jong Un. He was conspicuously absent in June when Trump made a snap decision to meet the North Korean leader at the Demilitarized Zone; Bolton instead traveled to Mongolia to meet with officials there.

Bolton’s departure is a boon for Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, who had clashed with the national security adviser and now assumes an unchallenged role as Trump’s closest adviser on foreign policy. Charlie Kupperman, the deputy national security adviser, will assume Bolton’s position on an acting basis, deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley said.

Kupperman is a Bolton confidant who has counseled the former national security adviser for more than 30 years, Bolton has said. Grisham said it was “too soon to say” whether Bolton’s National Security Council staff would remain in their jobs.

Gidley said in an interview on Fox News after Trump’s announcement that it had become “very clear that John Bolton’s policies and priorities did not align with President Trump’s.”

The break came days after Trump abandoned his plan to meet with the Taliban at Camp David, capping a tough week. On Friday, the president’s adviser on North Korea said negotiations have been stalled for months. On Thursday, Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt announced his intention to depart; the vaunted Israeli-Palestinian peace plan he’s been working on has yet to be unveiled. The U.S.-China trade war drags on.

Crude oil futures reversed an earlier gain in New York, falling 0.2% to $57.71 a barrel at 12:06 p.m.

Bolton, 70, joined the White House in April 2018, bringing an interventionist view into Trump’s inner circle.

From the outset, Bolton seemed like an odd fit for a president who champions an “America First” agenda and campaigned on disengaging the U.S. from wars prosecuted by his predecessors. At times, Bolton pursued his own longstanding foreign policy priorities, creating tension with top administration officials and the president himself.

Bolton came to the post best known for his ardent support of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq while serving in the George W. Bush administration. He was later a Fox News contributor and senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

Since joining Trump’s White House, Bolton sought to break Iran financially, shield Americans from the reach of the International Criminal Court and toughen U.S. posture toward Russia. Bolton was a leading voice promoting U.S. support for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, an effort that hasn’t been successful.

Western diplomats view Bolton’s departure as a sign that a meeting between Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is increasingly likely to happen at the U.N. General Assembly later this month, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Trump has offered to meet Rouhani to discuss a new agreement to prevent the country from obtaining nuclear weapons, but the Iranians have demanded that the U.S. first relax sanctions on Tehran. Bolton has been an outspoken critic of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that Trump abandoned and has urged increased economic pressure on the Islamic Republic.

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