John Bolton, who was former President Donald Trump’s national security advisor for greater than a 12 months, said Monday he’s “absolutely” considering launching a 2024 presidential bid — largely to challenge Trump.
Bolton, speaking on NBC News’ “Meet The Press Now,” said the “one thing” that might spur him to run can be “to make it clear to the people of this country that Donald Trump is unacceptable because the Republican nominee.”
Bolton called it “un-American” for Trump to “challenge the Structure” when he suggested over the weekend that the nation’s supreme law might be terminated in an effort to put him back within the White House.
Bolton, who has periodically been a vocal Trump critic since departing his administration in September 2019, called the previous president’s declaration “an existential threat to the republic itself.”
Trump, who has repeatedly spread false claims of widespread election fraud since his loss to President Joe Biden in 2020, claimed in a social media post Saturday that, “A Massive Fraud of this kind and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those present in the Structure.”
Trump appeared to walk back that statement earlier Monday, saying it was “Fake News” to assert he “desired to ‘terminate’ the Structure.” In follow-up posts, Trump declared in all caps that “IF AN ELECTION IS IRREFUTABLY FRAUDULENT, IT SHOULD GO TO THE RIGHTFUL WINNER OR, AT A MINIMUM, BE REDONE.”
Bolton rejected Trump’s clarifications, saying his sentiment is “not merely unsuitable and outrageous, it’s disqualifying.”
“Donald Trump, if he were to take the oath of office again, God forbid, would either be lying about preserving, protecting and defending the Structure, or possibly he would not say it in any respect,” Bolton said. “You may’t have this sort of approach. It isn’t something one can disagree with. That is foundational to the republic.”
Bolton called on GOP leaders to denounce Trump, who’s currently the one Republican to announce his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election. Quite a few other Republicans, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Trump’s ex-Vice President Mike Pence, are expected to be gearing as much as run for the GOP nomination.
The Biden administration said attacks on the Structure must be “universally condemned.” Many top Republicans, nonetheless, have avoided publicly addressing Trump’s remarks when asked for comment.
Bolton, noting that many Republican leadership roles are currently up for consideration, said that each prospective candidate should repudiate Trump’s remarks.
“And truthfully, in the event that they don’t, there’s one thing that might get me to get into the presidential race, which I checked out in prior elections, it will be to make it clear to the people of this country that Donald Trump is unacceptable because the Republican nominee,” Bolton said.
When pressed on those remarks, Bolton confirmed he would “absolutely” consider stepping into the 2024 race. To be a presidential candidate, he said, one must not only declare support for the Structure but in addition opposition to “individuals who would undercut it.”
Referencing the defunct House Un-American Activities Committee, Bolton said, “I believe if you challenge the Structure itself the best way Trump has done, that’s un-American.”
He challenged other Republicans to say the identical. “I do not see why they don’t seem to be saying it right away,” he said.
Nearly all GOP voters “disagree that Donald Trump is more essential than the Structure,” Bolton said. “What does a candidate should lose by appealing to 95% of the bottom of the Republican Party?”
He said he desired to see “Shermanesque statements” denouncing Trump from other potential candidates, and if he doesn’t, “then I’m going to significantly consider getting in.”
Asked for his views on the 2024 race and what his potential campaign might seem like, Bolton predicted that national security issues will dominate that election cycle “The isolationist virus that Trump has set free must be addressed, as well,” he added.
Bolton contrasted Trump, a “whiner,” with the late GOP President Ronald Reagan’s more “optimistic” message. The previous national security advisor said his possible presidential platform may be “very Reaganesque.”
Bolton described his politics as “pretty libertarian” and said he was “not a social conservative.”
He added that he believes the 2024 presidential field can be “very crowded,” and that he might make a choice on whether to run “sooner than some would think.”
