John Bolton’s Former Think Tank Gatestone Institute Known For Anti-Muslim Rhetoric, Which Was Used By Russian Trolls

National Security Adviser John Bolton used to be the chairman of an anti-Islamic think tank, as found by a NBC News report.

The think tank, Gatestone Institute, calls itself a non-partisan, non-profit think tank that discusses international policy and educates the public “about what the mainstream media fails to report.”

Gatestone has promoted distorted anti-Muslim news, some of which was picked up by Russian trolls on the internet. Between January 2009 and March 2018, Bolton authored 34 articles for Gatestone, though none were found to be anti-Muslim.

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Gatestone’s website says Bolton stepped down on March 28. He assumed his role as National Security Adviser on April 9.

Brookings Institution fellow Alina Polyakova told NBC that foreign policy experts were “surprised” to hear Bolton had been Gatestone’s chair. Council on American-Islamic Relations spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said it’s “disturbing” that someone with the position and power Bolton has ties to Gatestone.

He also has ties to Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow reported that his super PAC received millions of dollars in donations from Robert Mercer, who founded Cambridge Analytica. The PAC then went and put money into Cambridge Analytica.

Bolton replaced H. R. McMaster in April to become President Donald Trump’s third National Security Adviser, and is known as a war hawk.