McMaster allies say Trump's 'generals' will hate working with John Bolton

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

published 23 March 2018

President Trump believes that with the hawkish John Bolton as his national security adviser, he'll finally have the foreign policy team he wants, sources close to Trump tell Axios. Trump abruptly named Bolton to the post on Thursday evening, replacing H.R. McMaster, a studious Army general who reportedly bored Trump and clashed with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, Defense Secretary James Mattis, and outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Kelly and Mattis had nothing to do with picking Bolton, Bolton's friends tell Axios.

McMaster has complained that Kelly, Mattis, and Tillerson treated him like a junior partner, McMaster allies tell Axios' Jonathan Swan, and one said: "One of the downsides of what happened is I only wish Tillerson was around to experience this. The two of them that wanted him out most — Mattis and Tillerson — I only wish they were both around to endure the pain of National Security Adviser Bolton. They hated him [McMaster] but they're going to like this a lot less."

Bolton allies see it the same way. "The short term is maybe they [Kelly and Mattis] think they got rid of H.R. McMaster," one Bolton confidante tells Swan. "The long term is you have a person beyond respected by the [House] Freedom Caucus, beyond respected by every foreign policy hawk that supports the president. He rightly views himself as a principal." A veteran of the George W. Bush White House and a protege of former Vice President Dick Cheney, Bolton knows his way around the bureaucracy, Axios says, and "Bolton's ideological foes fear him not only because of his hawkish ideas, but because he knows how to accomplish them." You can read more at Axios.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.