John Bolton on Trump’s Cabinet Picks and What to Expect in His Second Term

Conversations with Bill Kristol

News, Society & Culture, Government, Politics

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🗓️ 28 November 2024

⏱️ 59 minutes

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Summary

What should we expect in Donald Trump’s second term? To discuss, we are joined by John Bolton, who served as National Security Advisor in the Trump White House from 2018 to 2019 and with distinction in many prior Republican administrations. Drawing on insights from working closely with Trump in his first term, Bolton shares his perspective on what the second term might look like. Bolton argues Trump selected his cabinet nominees for “fealty” rather than competence—and he discusses the politicization and chaos in government agencies that could result. Bolton also considers the role of the Senate as a potential check on the president, and reflects more broadly on Trump’s approach to the presidency.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Bill Crystal.
0:16.0	Welcome back to Conversations.
0:17.9	I'm very pleased to be joined today by John Bolton, served in many Republican
0:23.8	administrations with distinction, really. And we first met back in the George H.W. Bush administration.
0:29.9	When you were at the State Department, you had served in the Reagan administration, the Justice Department
0:33.9	before then, obviously the U.S. ambassador to the UN, among other things,
0:37.7	and the George W. Bush administration, and then you were President Trump's National Security
0:41.8	Advisor for about a year and a half. So wide experience in important parts of the government,
0:47.9	all of which are now in the news, and we will discuss them, in light of the nominations that
0:52.4	President Trump has made for those people to head
0:55.2	those departments. So, John, thank you for joining me today.
0:58.0	I'm glad to be with you. You know, we first met, I just think of this. We met maybe a little
1:02.3	bit when you were at the end of the Reagan administration when I was working for Bill Bennett and you
1:05.4	were at the Justice Department, I guess, still at that point. Yeah. Right. But then we met when you were at State and I was Vice President Quayle's chief of staff.
1:14.1	And we worked together pretty closely on the effort to overturn the Zionism as racism resolution.
1:20.0	Something is kind of been forgotten.
1:21.4	It was actually an achievement and you did a great job on it.
1:23.7	I've got to say you guys did all the work at State and under your direction. I, Vice President Quayle was kind of President Bush put him in charge of the White House
1:30.8	kind of side of it.
1:31.6	And so we would show up to kind of, you know, give it a vice presidential kind of seal of approval.
1:36.0	But, uh, and we got it repealed, right?
1:38.7	That was good.
	...

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