'John Bolton's defenestration was a long time coming. On so many issues ... President Trump's national security adviser's bellicose views and advice repeatedly clashed with those of his mercurial boss,' writes Peter Bergen for CNNOpinion
Peter Bergen is CNN's national security analyst, a vice president at New America and a professor of practice at Arizona State University. He is completing a book about President Trump's national security team and policies. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion articles at CNN.
John Bolton's defenestration was a long time coming. On so many issues -- North Korea, Iran, and Venezuela -- President Trump's national security adviser's bellicose views and advice repeatedly clashed with those of his mercurial boss. Bolton was a workaholic who would routinely rise at 3:30 a.m., and he understood on a deep level how to operate in the DC bureaucracy -- after all, he had started working in Washington for the Reagan administration. Bolton was inclined to bring a gun to any bureaucratic knife fight.
Acosta presses Mnuchin: Is national security team a mess? 02:51But in recent months Trump had made a number of conciliatory gestures to Iran. Following the Iranians bringing down an American drone in the Persian Gulf in June, Trump had approved a strike against Iranian missile batteries and radars but then he abruptly called off the operation. Trump then said he would speak to the Iranians with "no preconditions.
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