John Bolton and the MIHOP Gambit
[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]
Let me throw a minority report opinion at you, based on this video, first released on YouTube two days before the FBI served a dawn warrant on John Bolton’s home:
Bolton’s general opinion about Trump’s transactional approach to international relations certainly isn’t new.
But Bolton spent more than 12 minutes airing out his opinions on Trump’s handling of Russia, Ukraine, India-Pakistan, and tariffs.
He also shared his opinion that Trump’s so-called “list of accomplishments” is Trump trying to accrue to obtain a Nobel Peace Prize.
Trump’s handling of the India-Pakistan conflict in May earned an ego-fluffing nomination for a Nobel from Pakistan in June.
US support of Israel’s bombing of Iran in July, supported by Bolton, makes the nomination a joke as does continuing US support of Netanyahu’s genocidal handling of Gaza.
These conflicting approaches to international relations may pose leverage for Putin to pressure Trump on Ukraine, using Trump’s narcissistic desire for a Nobel Peace Prize — a prize former president Jimmy Carter, vice president Al Gore, and the first Black American president Barack Obama have been awarded. Bolton doesn’t make this point but he does say Putin is manipulating Trump.
Bolton’s criticism of Trump isn’t limited to the video above, or his remarks in his 2020 book, In The Room Where It Happened. Bolton has been interviewed by many outlets here and abroad during which his criticisms are laid out and only growing as Trump continues to flog his erratic and transactional foreign policies. Here are a sampling of interviews with Bolton:
John Bolton, whom Trump described as “a very dumb guy”, is worried about Taiwan
60 Minutes Australia, May 4, 2025
Putin Will ‘Take Advantage’ Of Trump Meeting: Fmr. Nat’l. Security Adviser John Bolton
NewsNation via The Hill, August 8, 2025
Trump is in rush to get deal done: John Bolton on Russia-Ukraine talks
Elizabeth Vargas Reports, NewsNation, August 18, 2025
‘Sanctions Don’t Prohibit What India Did’: Ex-Trump NSA John Bolton On U.S. Tariffs On India
Hindustan Times, August 21, 2025
In this excerpt from the Hindustan Times interview above:
10:34 [MATTOO] You know Ambassador Bolton, if I could bring you back to that question of trust uh moving forward in uh the partnership with America. Lots of commentators over the years in India have been skeptical about the relationship with the United States. They’re saying that look this is a country that fundamentally has a lot more leverage than we do. That’s the question you know do you have the cards and the the sense that there is in India is that yes America is willing now to use its leverage in a way that is coercive, is extremely transactional, uh, and is in some ways brutal.
And you’ve seen President Trump speak very appre, in a very appreciatory tone about tariffs, saying that we’re willing to use it time and again for our foreign policy instruments. There’s a sense that defense technology could be something that America uses as well. And for example, our fighter jet uh something like General Electric fighter jet engines which India is co-developing with the United States to use for our fighter jets is something that India took a significant leap of trust in the United States to develop that partnership uh after years and years as you might be familiar with of suspicion about Washington.
What do you think what has happened over the last couple of weeks does to trust in the relationship? And if you’re speaking to an Indian audience as you are now, how do you pitch to them that the American relationship is one that they should still rely on, should still work on, should still continue to develop?
11:45 [BOLTON] Well, unfortunately, what Trump has done on the tariffs generally uh is destroy uh decades of effort with India, but with a lot of other countries as well uh to build up good faith and trust and reliance on the United States and uh it will take time to repair that. That’s that’s the unfortunate reality. But but here’s where I think it’s important to understand that Trump is aberrational. I don’t know anybody else uh Republican or Democrat who ran for president, let’s just say in 2024, who if elected would behave anything like this. Trump’s doing a lot of things domestically in the United States that are cause for great concern for us as well. And I don’t know any other candidate from 2024 who would do that.
12:30 [BOLTON] Uh, Trump doesn’t have a philosophy. Uh so I think ultimately there’s no legacy for him to leave to his successors, whoever they might be. Uh and I believe that the uh the uh the the force of his personality inhibits a lot of people from speaking up, but that doesn’t mean they agree with what he’s doing. That’s very unfortunate in my view.
12:52 [BOLTON] But I think the uh the the the true strategic sense here uh particularly for a country like India with its assets and capabilities and uh and threats that it faces right on its own border uh is is just to take a deep breath and remember that the world’s going to last longer than the next three and a half years. And uh it’s not pleasant to go through this. I’m not not going to try and persuade anybody of that. But uh but our objective should be to keep the damage to the relationship uh at a minimum uh and then to think about how to repair it as quickly as we can thereafter because I think that when Trump walks off the stage uh he will take almost uh the bulk of this history with him.
(emphasis mine)
Bolton calls Trump “aberrational” or an “aberration,” but this is not the only time Bolton has done so. He did so in June 2020 when interviewed by ABC News, in an interview for NPR in August 2023, in March this year in a tweet from his own Xitter account, and in the India Today video (11:52) featured above.
While criticizing Trump and his foreign policy (or lack thereof), Bolton makes a point of calling Trump an aberration so often through so many media outlets that it seems like a campaign slogan.
In the Hindustan Times Bolton also noted Trump’s repression of free speech critical of his geopolitics. Bolton had to know that he would face more aggressive tactics by the Trump administration to squelch his criticism.
But what if this was the point? To egg Trump on with repeated critical comments Bolton knew from experience would hit a nerve with Trump, to goad him into attacking Bolton?
What if Bolton made it — the investigation into him including the raid on his home yesterday — happen on purpose? In other words, a MIHOP gambit?
If so, what are the next moves by Bolton and Trump?
~ ~ ~
During the February 5, 2020 hearing before the House Committee on the Judiciary, there were a couple questions asked of then-FBI Director Chris Wray mentioning John Bolton by name. First, committee chair Rep. Jerry Nadler (D, NY-12):
Chair Nadler. Okay. Now, recent reporting suggests that the
President plans to seek payback against those individuals he
believes crossed him during the impeachment proceedings. I am
sorry to have to ask. Has the President, the Attorney General,
or any other Administration official asked the FBI to open an
investigation into Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, John Bolton, or any
Member of Congress?
Mr. Wray. Mr. Chair, I have assured the Congress and I can
assure the Congress today that the FBI will only open
investigations based on the facts, law, and proper predication.
Chair Nadler. I understand that, and I assume that it is
correct that neither the President, the Attorney General, or
any other Administration official has asked the FBI to open
improper political investigations?
Mr. Wray. No one has asked me to open an investigation
based on anything other than the facts, law, and proper
predication.
Later in the hearing, Rep. Joe Neguse (D, CO-02):
I want to give you an opportunity to clarify earlier part
of your testimony. The Chair had asked a question, and I think
there was some confusion around your answer. So, with respect
to a recent article that alleges that the Administration may be
attempting to initiate political investigations or politically
motivated investigations, rather, into their political
opponents, has the President, the Attorney General, or any
Member of the Administration asked you to initiate an
investigation into John Bolton?
I am not asking whether or not that request would be
improper or proper or whether or not if such a request was
made, if you have initiated such an investigation. I am simply
asking if they have asked you to do so.
Mr. Wray. I understand why you’re asking the question, and
I would just tell you my commitment to doing things by the book
includes not talking about whether any particular investigation
does or does not exist. You shouldn’t read anything into that.
That’s not a hint that anything is happening. It’s just I don’t
think that’s a question that I can responsibly answer if I’m
going to be faithful to my commitment to doing things by the
book.
Mr. Neguse. Well, we appreciate–
Mr. Wray. I will tell you, as I said to the Chair–I will
tell you, as I said to the Chair, that no one has asked me to
open any investigation on anything that’s not consistent with
the facts, the law, and proper predication.
Mr. Neguse. I would just say, Director Wray, with all
respect, as you could probably imagine, these questions, both
the question the Chair posed and the question that I posed, are
not academic or esoteric for us. Seven months ago, Special
Counsel Mueller sat in the same chair that you are in, and we
all know now, that the very next day, the President had his
infamous call with the President of Ukraine, in which he sought
foreign interference in our elections. Of course, as you know,
in just a few hours, the Senate will render judgment in the
impeachment trial of the President.
So, one can ask reasonable questions as we read these
reports that we just over the course of the last few days as to
potentially what other actions this Administration might take.
So, again, I appreciate your earlier answer, and I want to move
on to a different topic, which is election interference.
There was an article just a few weeks ago in the New York
Times, and I would ask for unanimous consent to enter it into
the record. “ `Chaos Is the Point’: Russian Hackers and Trolls
Grow Stealthier in 2020,” by Matthew Rosenberg, Nicole
Perlroth, and David Sanger of the New York Times.
[The information follows:]MR. NEGUSE FOR THE RECORD
==========================================
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]Mr. Neguse. In the article, there are a couple of
references to new developments in terms of the way in which
Russian actors, the intelligence apparatus is engaging in
disinformation in attempted interference in our elections. I
wonder if you could comment about two in particular? I will
just quote.“One of the two Russian intelligence units that hacked
into Democrats in 2016, `Fancy Bear,’ has shifted some
of its work to servers based in the United States in an
apparent attempt to thwart the NSA, which is limited to
operating abroad. Also, the trolls at the Internet
Research Agency are trying to exploit a hole in
Facebook’s ban on foreigners buying political ads,
paying American users to hand over personal pages and
setting up offshore bank accounts to cover their
financial tracks.”I wonder if you could expand in greater detail on both of
those two issues and how the FBI, I guess, is addressing both
of those developments.
Mr. Wray. So, certainly, I appreciate the interest. I think
I’d have to be pretty careful about how much detail I could
provide in an open hearing. I would say that we believe–we
assessed that the Russians continue to engage in malign foreign
influence efforts of the sort that I was describing before–
fake personas, trolls, bots, state-sponsored media, the whole
gamut in the bag of tricks.
We also assessed that just like any sophisticated actor,
that they continue to refine their approach. We saw that from
2016-2018. We’ve seen it from 2018 moving forward. Happily,
we’re refining our approach, too, and we’re trying to stay
ahead of it.
(emphasis mine)
In 2020, during Trump’s first administration, neither the Trump DOJ nor the Democratic Party-led House launched investigations into John Bolton as Trump’s NSA, and in the FBI’s case, did not launch an investigation based on politics into Bolton.
Trump has now overseen a massive purge of intelligence and security personnel, many of whom share one or two things in common: they were involved in investigations in which Trump was a central figure, or they were involved in investigations related to Russia.
How will the Trump administration justify investigating Bolton now when his first administration didn’t appear to have done so? What’s Team Trump’s next move? What about Bolton’s?
What’s the next move for the Trump admin?
Not even God knows. But surely they will do something next week completely unrelated to Bolton or the investigation but equally outrageous, with the media and Democrats struggling to keep up with the insanity.
Pedro, did I really need that hyperfocused for you when asking what’s next BETWEEN BOLTON AND TRUMP?
I doubt there will be a ‘next’ move by the administration with Bolton, unless Bolton was stupid enough to give a grand jury a reason to indict. The Biden administration dropped a criminal probe into Bolton’s dealings and dismissed a civil case.
It’s a problematic and convoluted story. To append additional information to your submission, this CNN article lays out the odious facts and timeline well.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/23/politics/john-bolton-2020-investigation
Bolton is an experienced political maneuverer and I think EW is correct, he’s goading Trump. Why? To draw media attention to his devastatingly accurate assessment of Trump’s motives and competence. Absent a current battle with Trump, Bolton would be shouting into the wind. Now, with a case and accompanying court filings, the media has hooks to program around and Bolton is sure to get the attention he wants long enough to add his harsh judgments, still respected in some Republican circles, to the political liabilities (inflation, tariffs, massive overreach, militarizing cities, etc.) starting to drag Trump down.
I always add nota bene at the top of my posts so that readers don’t blame Marcy for my work. *hint-hint*
I apologize! I guess I was so eager to read your work, I skipped right over the note and your byline. Credit is crucial for writers and all kudos to you for an excellent post.
Wholeheartedly agree with Pedro, as the point of it all was Rayne’s previous post’s point, same as the ‘One final note:’ last sentence in this “I don’t feel safe in DC anymore” post published here in flyover country:
https://www.bleedingheartland.com/2025/08/22/from-heartland-to-hellscape-living-in-fear-in-washington-d-c/
As to Rayne’s conjecture that Bolton did this on purpose. I doubt it, but I appreciate a mind like Rayne’s thinking of possibilites I’d have never thunk of.
I still can’t fathom how Bolton, after being extremely critical of Trump, ended up saying before the ’24 election that Trump would still be the better option than Kamala. Or maybe it was Biden when he was making his point. I don’t remember now, but either way, what in the fucking hell? He didn’t think Trump would go after him if he came to power again? So who knows, maybe Rayne is on to something.
All together now: The man who owns the Mar-a-Lago Club knew perfectly well what was going on.
—
(After rereading (twice!) I’m still not tracking on Rayne’s question to Pedro. Then again, I’m more than two beers in. No matter. Appreciate the post.)
I’m glad Fiona Hill chose to return to England. I still worry about Merrick Garland. When will they go after him? That would be the most tragic irony of ironies with his family history.
This: “What’s the next move for the Trump admin?” is overbroad and isn’t followed by a response narrowed to John Bolton.
If Bolton prodded Trump and his administration on purpose, what’s the administration’s response? What was it Bolton hoped to achieve if he set this off with his persistent criticisms about Trump’s transactional policies?
And then what happens after that?
As for Bolton’s 2024 vote:
“I cannot in good conscience vote for him.”
But did he considering “not switching to the Democratic Party. I’m still a rock-ribbed conservative Republican.”
According to all of them, J6 was terrible of Trump.
A few days after J6, but actually it was just tourists coming to visit, Trump didn’t mean it, etc.
Do you really think any of the Never-Trump Republicans switched to the Democratic Party? Come on. Especially if doing so meant voting for a Black-Asian American woman.
Maybe Bolton has stuff that wasn’t in his book, personalities, quotations from Chairman Trump, which, being a focus of media attention, he will air more broadly. Maybe stuff that he can preview as trial evidence? Just shooting in the dark here, but if it is a MIHOP, then Trump going after him legitimates his going after Trump, so perhaps he does have additional material he’d like to drop. “In the first edition of my book I was precluded from revealing……” and so on and so forth.
Ooops. Just saw grizebeard has a similar thought.
Would Bolton be any freer in a follow-on book? Given Trump’s vice-grip and contempt for the First Amendment, to say nothing of his total capture of SCOTUS, I doubt any kind of tell-all (the kind we’d want to read) would make it to public view.
Bolton has other resources, however, including money and connections. DOJ has just plowed itself into a showdown in court(s), having violated every kind of norm–and, I’m guessing, regulations and laws–in their haste to seek revenge *somewhere* on *someone.*
And the timing is perfect. This will play out after Labor Day, when people start paying attention again.
Is Bolton possibly planning a new book…? {grin}
But anyway, good to get on the right side of history. Because one day – and may be it soon! – there are going to be a whole slew of people at different levels of government who are going to face very real consequences for their various improper exercises of power, violations of the law and breaches of their oath of office. So unless there is some general expectation for a “no way back” autogolpe, Nemesis awaits, pliable suckers. Cards are being marked, or certainly should be. (And maybe even sent anonymously to the deserving, well in advance…?)
in authoritarian south america, it took years to return to a semblance of “democracy.” eighteen years in chile, and extended bouts of authoritarian repression in argentina and brasil, plus the loss of a generation of talented and educated argentinians and c hileans.
trump the pervert is using their playbook as well as putin’s.
whether bolton is willing to call this out remains to be seen, but as always, i appreciate what i read here, by all the emptywheel contributors. thank you.
Like Trump, Bolton’s never been short of ego. He also has the same fondness for the limelight. So it could be a matter of two elderly cranks duking it out. But if Bolton’s motive was to goad Trump into an FBI raid, and knowing that Bolton’s smarter than Trump, we can surmise that Bolton got legal advice and scrubbed his place clean. Further, going from raid to indictment is a long road — something Patel, Bondi, and the trial courts know well — which suggests it’s as much an exercise in messaging to other critics than about Bolton. You know, like what mobsters do.
As soon as we found out about the raid on Bolton’s home and office, the first thing that came to mind was that this was Putin’s work. Bolton is known as a fierce Putin critic which Trump has complained about.
“his erratic and transnational foreign policies.”
Transactional? possibly?
Ughs, yes, transactional. The only consistent thing about Trump’s policies is the use of quid pro quos.
Editing now, thanks. I blame the daytime drinking. LOL
Try some soju some evening. Good stuff. Or with meals, makgeoili, which is a tad fizzy, and somewhat milder. 건배 ! (keombae; roughly – bottoms up!).
I have a couple bottles of soju in my fridge. I have been gradually working my way through different flavors. I am definitely not up to Korean standards of consumption, though. Makgeolli is tempting; I’ve run across a few home brewing recipes for this beverage and I may try it this winter.
Unfortunately while visiting my folks my beverages are somewhat more pedestrian, like Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy.
The court approved the search warrant on Mr. Bolton’s hom3. It would be interesting to see that. It’s also odd that the administration says it is “early” in the investigation of Bolton, when those with experience in such prosecutions say that usually a search is a step taken near the end of an investigation.
Very interesting thought by Rayne that Bolton may be gaming the administration.
When do warrants become public record? Still not entirely clear on this. And do we know which magistrate signed off on it? If it is a national security based investigation, are the available magistrates different, that is, not regular ones?
After I heard about the search of Bolton’s house, I wondered what evidence DOJ used to convince a judge to issue a warrant. Also, what judge issued the warrant? Was s/he a Trump appointee or a less controversial one? Do they really have something on Bolton (other than some suspect hearsay)? Did they support the application with a bunch of lies? And would we ever know which of these is true?
If raiding Bolton’s home is pay back then lies are as good as the truth for people like trump. The storm trooopers are accusing people of all sorts of things to be able to incarcerate and deport them. Why would Bolton not be subjected to what they are. trump, patel, the barbie twins, miller think they can do anything they like. Trump wants the world to consider him king of the world. Unfortunately for him, he is just another dumb ass with delusions.
Cohen was clear about trump. I’m waiting for him to pass an executive order stipulating Gavin Newsom has to cease and desist making fun of him. All of trump’s activities these days are reasons he will not be given a Nobel Peace Prize. He might some day be tried as a criminal again, in the meantime Americans might want to remember how other fascist states ended. If people think he won’t come after them, they’re a tad on the delusional spectum
In The Room Where It Happened, the title of Bolton’s book, is very similar to the song in “Hamilton” titled “The Room Where It Happens.” I wonder if Linn Manuel Miranda knows about this and whether Bolton did it on purpose.
Another reason, perhaps, why Trmp has it in for him, catering to those elitist “artists.”
The phrase “the room where it happens” has been common for several years, initially to replace the male exclusivity implied in the term “smoke-filled room”. As society evolves into non-binary and gender-expansive understandings it is proving its worth. That may not be exactly why both Bolton used it but it certainly why Miranda did.
provocative hypothesis: the only thing that i can see of any benefit for such a (seemingly misguided) move is to force the fat felon’s hand because if there’s one thing we know about Felon, Inc is that when they are forced to follow through on their ill-conceived agenda on an accelerated time schedule, they almost always fuck up in myriad ways above and beyond their usual malignancy
I think it is more simple than complex. In medieval times didn’t they flog and shackle individuals in the town center. It kinda looks like that. Bolton is such a goofy press release kinda guy. Like, he goes on these VIP interviews with the inside information on Trump, noise, noise, and more noise.
I am sorry. The Trump admin is a cult. I keep saying that to myself. A cult leader is going to exclude someone from the cult, and use that exclusion process as an exercise of loyalty. …Oh, he is not one of us, punishment, banishment. The Trump admin is living in it’s own self made laws.
They could be filling a prison room in a for profit prison. So, it’s now a white old man ex government official. It was South Americans.
On purpose? I don’t get the MIHOP thing? Sorry.
Took me a minute: Make It Happen On Purpose. MIHOP.
Thanks. It confused me also, but I did not allot time to try to figure it out.
Kissinger won a prize too, it was not only given to Democrats. Once given coup-monger Kissinger, it was cheapened beyond measure.
“It confused me also, but I did not allot time to try to figure it out.”
Next time, maybe allot that time to try to figure it out before you allot time to, you know, comment.
So I should have dumbed this down even more:
Hmm.
Nothing is wrong with using language instead of abbreviations. What Bolton could gain by instigating big legal fees where sealed records may apply is unclear, if purposely making it happen. Discovery has a cost.
“Nothing is wrong with using language instead of abbreviations” says a guy who didn’t draft the 2282 words in this post or moderate the comments.
It’s really quite annoying to have commenters who can’t put a little effort into something relatively simple, and have someone support the laziness with language policing.
One might think they would be smart enough to plant some evidence. I’m confident they are too dumb now but just wait.
I would not put it past the Trump admin to plant evidence against Bolton. But I also imagine that the kind of documents someone like Bolton would have among his papers, and on his hard drives, are such that if you went through them with careful intent, you could easily find material that could plausibly be presented as classified, or containing info based on a classified document. So they wouldn’t have to concoct something from scratch in order to frame him. Bolton must know all that. He also knows that Trump and the people behind him will be restrained by little in achieving their ends, certainly not the law under an immune president with pardon power. So if Bolton is pulling a MIHOP and intentionally provoking Trump… I’d have to say good for him. But is he that great a patriot?
I will not be surprised to see them eventually make a move against either Obama or HRC. They will build up to that slowly, like the good showrunners they are.
In the nearer term, serving both as a diversion from bad news (to the extent such a thing exists for Trump) and as a new mode of attack on the media and the information sphere, I expect to see a WaPo, NYT, WSJ, or Atlantic journalist arrested and held until they reveal the source of a “national security” leak.
Didn’t some of Hilary Clinton’s emails get retroactively re-classified as TOP SECRET? I wouldn’t put it past either Patel or Ratcliffe to do so.
Didn’t the hearings reveal that some of those retrospective (as the British say) classifications involve small c classified footnotes that were basically call sheets involving communication with foreign officials? Would this current group of apparatchiks try something like this with Bolton? Definitely. They’ve tried repeatedly to criminalize legal behavior, which itself is ironic since SCOTUS has repeatedly legalized the criminal behavior of the maladministration. I expect that they will serve us a very thin gruel of alternative facts to indict Bolton and others not covered by Biden’s pardon.
Normally, obtaining copy of search warrant application winds it way through haphazard FOIA, motion practice with the application as an exhibit, as a leak out of the courthouse or FBI, e.g.. However, in this case I would offer as reasonable speculation that we might get to see it very soon as being released by Bolton’s attorney. I suspect this case stems from regurgitated material out of Bolton’s book controversy in 2020. In that event, Bolton would welcome the opportunity to make that public so as to demonstrate the revenge nature of all of this rather than any new possibly serious evidence of wrongdoing.
[Welcome to emptywheel. Please choose and use a unique username with a minimum of 8 letters. We adopted this minimum standard to support community security. Because your username is too short, your username will be temporarily changed to match the date/time of your first known comment until you have a new compliant username. /~Rayne]
That. I have wondered if Bolton is looking for an opportunity to sue because discovery is our friend.
Same here. When confronted with discovery before a trial, Trump and the DOJ have often looked quite foolish. Their weak attempts to defend their actions often disclose their dishonorable (and yes, illegal) intentions.
Discovery—aka why Individual-1 almost always settles (provided the other side has the resources to keep up with his lawfare). A thought-provoking hypothesis to be sure, Rayne! I’ve disagreed with Bolton plenty, but boy has been right about Putin—from the freaking get-go.
Yes, I also see this as a much likelier avenue for Bolton’s next move than another book. The money and connections I mentioned above will aid him, not only in defending against whatever charges they contrive, but also in any counter-action.
Not being a lawyer, I did not see this exact option. Anything that forces Blanche, Bondi, and Trump into discovery is a consummation devoutly to be wished.
It could be that they are illegally monitoring Bolton’s communication and something showed up. I would expect the hot topic is the tariff aim at India in particular, and there may have been so much classification of what Trump’s doing that way that Trump might suggest there was a leak of secrets which Bolton then somehow breached. We need the lawyer’s release of the warrant. Could it be a secret warrant, copy given Bolton per law, but classified so that he cannot publicize it and must find a lawyer with a suitable clearance to represent him. Is that possible?
Bolton still has his clearance, it’s not been pulled, or has it?
Yes, his security clearance was pulled on January 21, as soon as Trump took office. Retribution is in a hurry…
Not only was his security clearance revoked — on Day 1, as Matt B notes above—but, having been warned by the Biden administration that Iran had put out a hit on Bolton, for actions he took at the behest of trump during his 1st term—they also publicly pulled his security detail.
I despise Bolton with the heat of a million suns, but he’s probably not someone you’d want to corner, and no one ever said he was stupid. I’m betting FBI comes up empty handed, or does something ridiculous like seize extra copies of his book “as evidence” of, well, something. There’s enough uncertainty about the book review surely they could “misread” the file or something like that.
However, that’s rich Bolton talking about repairing relationships. I guess there’s always time to turn over a new leaf?
Bolton hinting around about mending relations with Modi India on RW Hindu media outlets sounds like code for something … something less gauche, something … something more furtive than that RexXon Tillerman Medal of Friendship would do me.
Bolton was on two podcasts with hosts who are highly critical of Trump in the past week, and he was highly critical of Trump in both.
The Daily Beast podcast (Episode title: Why Trump is so Epically Bad at Negotiations, dated August 19) and the Lincoln Project with Rick Wilson (popped up yesterday, although it sounded like they recorded it before the raid).
A scintillating and thought-provoking piece, well-done Rayne. Criminal defense counsel in DC ain’t cheap (civil associates at white shoe firms charged north of $1,600/ hr a decade ago—can’t imagine what it is now, and that was merely civil), but I have long wondered why Bolton joined the first administration. He certainly wasn’t fooled by Putin—ever. Andrew Weissmann said* Bolton nor his defense counsel might not ever see the actual warrant—is that because Weissmann assumes this would never go to trial?
(*And in the process gently corrected Ken Dilanian for seemingly taking what he was being fed by his administration sources at face value).
I could see Netanyahu recommending Bolton to Trump 1.0 as an anti-Iran hawk.
That makes sense (was thinking about it more from what his motivations to join could’ve been—all he had to do was call Dan Coats)—but for sure that would make sense.
The entire GOP would have recommended Bolton.
IIRC, Bolton was one of that wave of “grownups in the room” that were supposed to keep a leash on Trump. But I’m also sure he saw an opportunity to move the ball on some of his many pet projects, which he was quickly disabused of in Trump 1.0. Rayne’s comment is also quite plausible, and likely, at least as a contributing factor.
Trump doesn’t ever actually want to DO anything, he just wants to LOOK like he’s doing something (as well as getting credit for things he never did), but I think Bolton has waited too many decades for his superman.
Surprised no one has mentioned the bad blood between Bolton and Tulsi Gabbard. He’s suggested that liberated Syrian government files might mention her past relationship with Assad. He also recently said that, regarding her Obama allegations, she “imagined evidence that doesn’t exist.” Perhaps this is Trump giving Tulsi a swing at the piñata.
True, could be Gabbard going after Bolton, as a proxy for Trump.
But Gabbard has received much less of Bolton’s focus; she wouldn’t be where she is without Trump.
Not impossible that Gabbard could be reaching for another way of ingratiating herself with Trump, trying again to get back into his good graces.
While simultaneously ingratiating herself with Putin. Among others. Bolton made numerous enemies on the international stage.
I’d be surprised if the Trump admin people weren’t aware Bolton was already working on another book. Who knows what the state of his security clearance is, or was? Not that he doesn’t have plenty of people with current & past clearances to talk to; likely culprits, further targets of menacing kayfabe ‘raids’ to martyr among them, surely.
Yeah; maybe wrong, but thinking staged, with Bolton in on it, was my first reflex upon seeing the chyrons below his humble abode yesterday morning, the endless live feed of the sad state of that roof, in particular (how many properties does he own? Or have a well-kept fort in? Is Interpol on that? Please).
The interview with Bolton on Indian TV surely set off the Orange Stain. I found myself agreeing with almost everything Bolton said, especially about Trump being an aberration. Trump is still laser focused (at least a much lower watt laser as a person with dementia) on Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. I’m waiting to see the fireworks when Trump and Bondi try to raid one of their houses!
Raiding Obama and Clinton’s homes. Probably has trump dreaming. Bolton is the first raid, expect more to come and in some would not be surprised if they were handcuffed and walked out in front of news cameras.
Trump likes to think of himself as a tough guy, but really is a misfit with poor manners. and lacks taste He is one of those people who aren’t very bright but have an animal cunning which enables them to advance their agenda. He is a joke. Of course he may simply take after his paternal grandfather who ran a bordello and drinking establishment in Canada during the Gold Rush or so they say.
No man his age and build ought to be wearing white shorts with such a big ass on the golf course or any where actually. His red caps and ill fitting suit with the orange make up, omg some times I wonder if he wants to grow up and be a drag queen. He might give it a try because lord knows the boy isn’t dressed well enough, smart enough and principled enough to be the President of the U.S.A.
He would qualify for the mayor of Dogville.
Drag queens are smart and clever and most have huge hearts. Even the drag that looks tacky is a thought-out, crafted character on a drag queen.
Drag queens blend foundation better than Trump and dqs can certainly decorate a room better than Trump can.
As to Trump being an aberration, I don’t think so. There’s too much a smell of the Gilded Age as well as the Nazi and Franco ascendancies (with an astringent John Birch aftertaste) for me to think that.
What we have to fix, iow, is structural because he’s a product of the current Fascist/Dictator-friendly structure we occupy.
Nixon dirty tricks was a precedent. Making trouble for Hunter Biden while holding the power to do it, that also was a precedent. If you do not nail an enemy, you at least stretch them and their resources. It’s really nothing new. Rayne may be correct on timing.
“Nixon dirty tricks was a precedent.” Was it? Were there never dirty tricks in any election before Nixon?
The folks who put Trump into office are the problem, and, unfortunately, stupid can’t be fixed.
[Sorry about the O/T, Rayne]
re: Kilmar Abrego Garcia
https://bsky.app/profile/klasfeldreports.com/post/3lxa24uhoas2c
August 25, 2025 at 8:52 AM [< Everything available at this link]
7/23/25
https://bsky.app/profile/mikesacks.bsky.social/post/3lunql6jx4c2p
July 23, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Footnotes 16 and 17 of 7/23/25 XINIS order [linked above]:
8/23/25
https://bsky.app/profile/annabower.bsky.social/post/3lx3ayeqsb225
August 23, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Why are they so afraid of him? AFAICT, he isn’t dangerous to most people.
They are afraid of the idea that they can be stopped and held to account. Their power is built on the mythology that they can’t.
They’re not afraid of him at all. Trump is afraid of looking like a loser if Garcia is released and the whole “case” against him just fades away because it was based on next to nothing. Trump is afraid of looking like a loser, so, he orders continued torture. “The cruelty is the point.”
This man is so famous right now and I’m sure he has lots of connected people on his side. Just because he is sent to Uganda does it mean he has to stay there? Could a web of support be ready to pick him up from Uganda and transport him to a more amenable country? So he doesn’t have to take this ‘deal’ and live as a person with a US felony for the rest of his life?
I would be remiss if I did not add:
NONE of this would even be possible without the
TRUMP-ENABLING ROBERTS SCOTUS:
https://bsky.app/profile/leahlitman.bsky.social/post/3lx7zngpyfs23
August 25, 2025 at 8:43 AM
They will do anything, hurt anyone to force everyone to live under the rule of their religion.
I can’t think of any swear-words or epithets strong enough.
…to describe the multitude of historic obscenities we face.
On the subject of SCOTUS, I haven’t seen anything better than this:
“You might remember that during the first Gun Monkey administration there were numerous editorials assuring us that everything would be fine. Anonymous administration officials were writing op-eds to tell us not to worry, the Plexiglas was of the highest possible quality. Gun Monkey might shoot a lot of bullets and fling a lot of crap, they wrote, but our Founding Fathers, in their infinite wisdom, knew about monkeys and knew about guns and knew that the American people were, first and foremost, a group of mostly-drunken idiots who almost certainly would make an angry armed monkey their president sooner or later. So our system was almost entirely armed monkey-proof, we were assured. There were monkey handlers, a whole West Wing of them, and there were Plexiglas-polishers, and there were entire agencies whose purpose was to make sure the gun-toting monkey couldn’t do anything worse than maybe graze you a little.”
“That was the promise. What they didn’t account for, however, was Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts having a huge boner for gun-toting monkeys.”
“”This monkey should be able to shoot any American he wants,” John Roberts said after the monkey escaped the Oval Office and started shooting its way through the U.S. Capitol.”
I think “huge boner for gun-toting monkeys” is Justice Robert’s historical epitaph.
ht tps: //www.unchartedblue.com/monkey-with-a-gun-the-donald-trump-story/
(I broke the link in two places.)
Thanks for sharing that hilarity. I always got such a kick out of Letterman’s “Trump or Monkey?”. This truly carries it to the perfect extreme.
Earlier today:
https://bsky.app/profile/joshuajfriedman.com/post/3lxa2docins2k
August 25, 2025 at 8:55 AM
https://bsky.app/profile/lawrencehurley.bsky.social/post/3lxa2gtgy222f
August 25, 2025 at 8:57 AM
https://bsky.app/profile/kyledcheney.bsky.social/post/3lxcpldap352p
August 26, 2025 at 10:21 AM
The screenshot is of Footnote 2:
Here is one of Abrego Garcia’s Senators:
https://bsky.app/profile/vanhollen.senate.gov/post/3lxabovgjys23
August 25, 2025 at 11:07 AM
One example of the lie-spreading TRUMP administration:
https://bsky.app/profile/annabower.bsky.social/post/3lxa44xk5xk2x
August 25, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Alttext from that screenshot:
I think the US is much safer with him than with Noem and the ICE goons.
“I think the US is much safer with him than with Noem and the ICE goons”
I know that my dog is.
On the subject of MIHOP I can’t help but wonder whether Governor Newsom is trying the same thing.
Online, NY Post claims an exclusive, that Bolton sent classified material to his family on a private email server during Trump 45, and in the interim Biden suspended that probe: https://nypost.com/2025/08/22/us-news/patels-fbi-raids-john-boltons-home-in-high-profile-national-security-probe/
Then March 24 this year: https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/5211776-john-bolton-blasts-trump-officials-for-using-signal-to-conduct-government-business/
Something that simple could be afoot – Don’t point the finger if you may be pointing into a mirror.
That does not explain the timing of this raid, but it goes to motive. It is possible that the asleep probe was not remembered, but was somehow rediscovered recently once the Bolton item about Signal usage triggered a search of records. They may have used Grok to search.
It’s also amazing what might turn up if one uses a combination of 1000 FBI agents combing though documents in another investigation and a team like DOGE digging for all manner of expenditure past and dirt on former federal employees.
I’d think twice about trusting the New York Post. It’s a Murdoch rag.
It does say something, though, about the means by which the administration may be attacking Bolton. Using NYPost is an attack on Bolton’s credibility.