Why Trump Needed Someone Like John Bolton

Bolton’s willingness to be honest about the true intentions of our adversaries was a strength and a necessity.

Bobby Jindal September 18, 2019

The Reagan administration believed that “personnel is policy” and empowered conservatives by placing their ideological colleagues in positions of power throughout the government bureaucracy. President Trump has at times worked to disprove this maxim, continuing the trend of recent administrations of both parties. The president has centralized power in the White House at the expense of cabinet agencies. He has taken this trend a step farther by concentrating power in his own hands at the expense of the White House chief of staff and other senior advisers.

 

The reality-TV celebrity who enthusiastically enjoyed announcing firings on national TV was never going to assemble a team of rivals, a collection of distinguished statesmen with independent reputations, ideas, and power bases. Instead, he has delivered a historically high rate of turnover in senior positions, including the chief of staff, national-security adviser, communications director, and cabinet secretaries. Despite his amply demonstrated loyalty, even Vice President Pence has been the subject of rumors about his potential replacement. It is hardly surprising that the man who made the phrase “you’re fired” the climax of his weekly TV show would be willing to change his advisers so casually.................To Read More.....

My Take - There's much here I disagree with, but he's reflecting many of the thoughts I expressed in my article, The Tide and John Bolton.  As I've said in my article, I don't like some of Bolton's militaristic approach to events, especially Venezuela.  It's now clear to me Bolton hasn't grasped the entirety of the end of the Bretton Woods era.  Trump has! 

However, his extensive knowledge and insights into world events is in my opinion important.  Does that excuse his going around the President to the media?  Any action such as that makes the choice to let him go inevitable. He had to know that, and that's why he offered to resign, which placed Trump in a position of having to accept his resignation or decide to keep him on board.  If he kept him on it would have been a tacit agreement allowing him to continue down a divergent path and still be in his administration. 

Trump must have recognized that for what it was and made the only decision a leader can.  There's much about Bolton I like, but either a member of the administration is loyal or he's out.  That's known as leadership.

As for Bolton, he's not going to be out of the picture for long.  He will land somewhere and he will be able to take any position he likes publicly. 

The only thing that surprises me is this article was from Bobby Jindal.  Why?  What's he up to?  I think that's a story we need to watch.