John Bolton says he won't vote for Trump again: 'My concern is for the country'

A lifelong Republican, former National Security Adviser John Bolton won't vote for President Trump in November, telling Britain's Telegraph newspaper that Trump does not represent the Republican Party.

"In 2016 I voted for Trump over Hillary Clinton," Bolton told the Telegraph. "Now, having seen this president up close, I cannot do this again. My concern is for the country, and he does not represent the Republican cause that I want to back."

"I don't think he's fit for office," Bolton told ABC News in an interview that aired Sunday. "I'm not gonna vote for him in November. Certainly not gonna vote for Joe Biden either," he added, referring to the presumptive Democratic nominee, saying he will "figure out a conservative Republican to write in."

Subscribe to 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 served as Trump's national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019, a stint he writes about in his forthcoming memoir, The Room Where It Happened. The Trump administration tried to block the book's release, but a judge on Saturday ruled against "a nationwide seizure and destruction of a political memoir."

Reporters who have read the book say Bolton claims Trump begged Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win re-election, approved of China building Uighur concentration camps, and called journalists "scumbugs" who should "be executed." Catherine Garcia

UPDATE: The Telegraph reported that Bolton was voting for Biden, and an earlier version of this article cited that report, but Bolton spokeswoman Sarah Tinsley later clarified that Bolton "never said he planned to vote for Joe Biden." This article has been updated accordingly. We apologize for the confusion.