The White House announced a John Bolton press briefing an hour before his ouster

John Bolton.
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

It appears even the White House was unaware National Security Adviser John Bolton's ouster was coming even one hour before it happened.

President Trump shortly before noon on Tuesday announced that Bolton is leaving the administration, writing that he "asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning," also throwing him under the bus by writing that he "disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions."

This tweet was sent at 11:58 a.m. ET. Just about an hour beforehand, at 10:55 a.m. ET the White House sent out a schedule saying Bolton would speak at a press briefing that afternoon, according to New York magazine's Olivia Nuzzi.

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The White House tells Nuzzi that Bolton resigned after that schedule was sent out, i.e. sometime in that hour between the schedule's release and Trump's tweet. Needless to say, Bolton, who is now going around publicly disputing Trump's version of events, won't speak at that press briefing anymore, and he has reportedly already left the building. Brendan Morrow

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan is a staff writer at The Week. A graduate of Hofstra University with a degree in journalism, he also writes about horror films for Bloody Disgusting and has previously contributed to The Cheat Sheet, Heavy, WhatCulture, and more. He lives in New York City surrounded by Star Wars posters.