President Donald Trump fired National Security Advisor John Bolton over tweet on Tuesday.
“I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House,” Trump wrote. “I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning. I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week.”
It had become apparent in the last few weeks that the two were divided on the issue of arranging peace talks with the Taliban. Against Bolton’s advice, Trump had planned to invite Taliban leaders to Camp David to meet with him and the president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani. Trump canceled those plans in the wake of a car bomb suicide attack that killed 12 people, including an American soldier.
However, another interesting theory of why Bolton was let go has emerged.
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He may have believed Bolton leaked information after AXIOS published a story that Trump had reportedly encouraged using nuclear weapons to stop hurricanes from hitting the U.S.
“I got it. I got it. Why don’t we nuke them?” Trump asked, according to one of three sources who was present. “They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they’re moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can’t we do that?”
On Twitter, Trump denounced the story and called it “FAKE NEWS.”
Dropping a nuclear bomb into a hurricane would violate the terms of the Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union.
Bolton is the third National Security Advisor Trump has fired.
After the tweet was published, Bolton was quick to deny that he had been fired. Several journalists reported that Bolton immediately began texting them with his version of events.
“John Bolton just texted me, just now, he’s watching,” said Brian Kilmeade of Fox News while live on television. “He said, ‘let’s be clear, I resigned.’”
“Offered last night without his asking,” Bolton texted to New York Times‘ Peter Baker. “Slept on it and gave it to him this morning.”
He later tweeted the same thing.
During an appearance on Fox News’ Special Report on Tuesday, Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said Brian Hook, the U.S. Representative to Iran, retired Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg and former Deputy National Security Adviser Rick Waddell are all being considered to replace Bolton.
“Those are three names that the president mentioned to me,” Graham said. “There are others on the list.”
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