The Room Where It Happened, Chapter 3

Chapter 3: "America Breaks Free" or "Maybe Bolton Should See His Doctor About that 30-Year 'Bomb Iran' Erection"

Quick Hits: John Bolton achieves one of his big goals in getting the US to ditch the Iran deal. That this is his goal is hardly surprising, as a simple word association with "John Bolton" results in 90% "Preemptive Bombing of Iran" and 10% "Mustache" (although I'm sure "Self-Serving Sellout" is now creeping up the charts). This turns out to be one of his easier lifts, considering the only thing he needed to say to get Trump on board was to remind him that this was something Obama did.

If there is anything that John Bolton loves more than talking about how smart and right he is, it is talking about how much he wants to foment conflict with Iran. In the third chapter of his White House memoir, he can hardly contain his glee at trashing the Iran Anti-Nuclear deal from the previous administration. He casts himself as a lone hero, battling the short-sighted peaceniks over in the State Department that continued to argue for keeping and/or modifying the existing deal and working with our European allies in holding a united front on this point of global interest. Here we have Bolton the hawkish warmonger in his element.

However, before we get to that, Bolton the office malcontent steps in to criticize Haley (again) and to note Trump's lack of critical thinking skills (e.g., complaining about Pearl Harbor minutes before going into a meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Abe). This also comes up in the president's other interactions with world leaders, particularly our traditional allies, as he is shown belittling figures like Macron and Merkel, leading to a bit of choice sarcasm from the author:

"[Merkel] also asked for three to four months' delay in imposing global steel and aluminum tariffs Trump was considering, so the EU could negotiate with the US. Trump answered that he didn't want to negotiate with the EU. Too bad he didn't feel that way about North Korea, I thought to myself" (Bolton 70-71).

On the other hand, Trump's interactions with our global rivals and traditional enemies is much more cordial (even disgustingly subservient, especially in the light of more recent revelations). In Bolton's view (shared by quite a few other analysts), Trump's infantile obsession with the 2016 election is what feeds his desire to not confront Putin on anything:

"Trump believed that acknowledging Russia's meddling in US politics, or in that of many other countries in Europe and elsewhere, would implicitly acknowledge that he had colluded with Russia in his 2016 campaign. This view is wrong as a matter of both logic and politics" (Bolton 63). 

Bolton also highlights the juxtaposition of Trumps nationalistic (and, of course, often racist) railing against foreign political adversaries with his weak, naïve interactions with them:

"Trump said he would be making a staement on Iran shortly and asked, in an almost childlike way, if Xi wanted to know what he would say. Xi said it sounded like Trump wanted to tell him, completely on-target insight. Trump, in a 'why not?' moment, said that, feeling trust in confiding in Xi, he was terminating the nuclear deal, which was bad, and that we would see what happened." (Bolton 73)

Indeed, Bolton is simply providing more examples of Trump's seemingly bizarre personal embrace of countries and leaders often viewed (even by his own administration) as hostile to the interests and values of America contrasted with his acrimonious relationships with the America's traditional allies. Bolton here is coming around to the idea that Trump is a weak and ineffective leader, but at the same time, a president that he can easily influence into making his long-term goals and visions a reality. Before moving on, he celebrates his victory by taking a few parting shots at Mattis and Mnuchin, naturally.