Former National Security Adviser John Bolton 'prepared' to run against Trump

John Bolton, onetime national security adviser and United Nations ambassador for former President Donald Trump, has suggested he will throw his hat into the 2024 GOP presidential campaign, should Republicans not sufficiently denounce Trump as "un-American."

In interviews with NBC on Monday, and CNN Tuesday morning, Bolton — who has never held elected office — affirmed that he was "prepared" to challenge Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, explaining that candidates "can't simply say 'I support the Constitution."

"You have to say 'I would oppose people who would undercut it,'" he continued.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Bolton's threat to enter the race comes as GOP officials have largely offered muted criticisms of Trump's recent call for "termination" of the U.S. Constitution, and the reinstatement of himself as president following his 2020 electoral defeat. Bolton had previously mulled entering the 2016 presidential race but ultimately demurred, later serving as the Trump administration's national security adviser. He left the administration under dubious circumstances in 2019, and has become a vocal critic of the Trump White House, and the former president himself, since returning to private life. Trump has similarly raged against his onetime adviser, claiming in 2020 that "if I listened to him, we would be in World War Six by now," and reportedly encouraged a criminal investigation of Bolton, as well.

Trump has not offered any public comment on Bolton's recent openness to challenging him for the 2024 GOP nomination.