John Bolton has grown on me over time. My initial take was that he was a right wing extremist. I questioned and still question many of his past policy judgements and actions, particularly those that may have played a role in getting us into Iraq.
But I think Bolton’s views on North Korea and Iran have been sound. Back in 2018, Bolton pressed for preemptive strikes against North Korea’s nuclear program. They never happened. Instead, one President after the next — Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden vowed North Korea would never acquire or retain nuclear weapons. President Trump tried his special approach — sending Kim Jong Un fawning letters, holding three summits, and claiming, “We fell in love.”
Today, North Korea has 50-and-counting nuclear weapons, including some that can, it seems, hit Hawaii. He also has submarines capable of firing nuclear weapons. Soon these subs will be nuclear-powered. Inside a decade, every part of our country will likely be within range of North Korean nuclear missiles. At that point, look for Kim to invade South Korea. This may partly explain why South Korea has the lowest fertility rate in the world.
Bolton also pressed for early military action against Iran to stop their nuclear program — a step President Trump finally took after waiting to make sure Israel was winning the conflict. But then he backed off despite reports that his bombing of Iran’s deeply buried nuclear facilities was largely unsuccessful. Trump, through Defense Secretary, Hegseth, just fired the general whose intelligence unit reported mission failure. This is just the latest example of Trump’s shooting honest messengers. It follows close on to his firing of the BLS Commissioner because he didn’t like the latest BLS employment report — a report showing that the economy is faltering.
Bolton is the only prominent Republican to say it like it is. In his 2020 book, The Room Where It Happened, about working as National Security Advisor for Trump, Bolton described the President as “stunningly uninformed” and “easily manipulated by foreign adversaries.” Bolton further stated, "I don't think he's fit for office. I don't think he has the competence to carry out the job."
Bolton’s book claims that Trump 1) asked China to help him win the election, 2) endorsed China’s building of Uighur internment camps, 3) offered personal favors to dictators, 4) committed high crimes and misdemeanors worthy of impeachment and conviction, 5) is seeking to change the Constitution and serve more terms, 6) didn’t know the UK was a nuclear power, 7) thought Finland might be a part of Russia, 8) almost quit NATO, 9) thought invading Venezuela would be “cool,” and 10) was described by Mike Pompeo, his Secretary of State, as “full of shit.” None of these points involve state secrets. All are deeply embarrassing to the President.
No surprise. Bolton has become the latest victim of Trump’s political witch hunts. Indeed, Bolton stated the following, in a 2024 revised version of his book, “Trump really only cares about retribution for himself, and it will consume much of a second term.”
But going after Bolton by sending the FBI to search his home is likely motivated by more than trying to silence his most formidable critic. One can differ with Bolton’s views, past and present, but no one can argue with his ability to eviscerate Trump by delivering the facts in a forceful, persuasive, and deadly serious manner. Bolton’s charisma derives from its absence.
At a time when Trump is turning our nation into a police state and the President and his minions are using the instruments of government, including the Department of Justice and the FBI, to “investigate” anyone critical of our self-adoring, child leader, Bolton says it like it is. He is our country’s closest thing to Alexi Navalny, who laid bare for the Russian people the truth about Trump’s “deep friend,” Vladimir Putin.
Navalny posed an existential political threat to Putin for which he was poisoned, imprisoned, and effectively murdered by our great leader’s deep friend. Bolton poses an existential political threat to Trump’s all-too-possible third term or indirect rule via one of his toddies. This is why Bolton needs to run for President and announce his candidacy forthwith. Doing so will not only protect Bolton personally — attacking Bolton will be instantly viewed as a political, not a legal act. It will also protect our nation like nothing and no one else can.
Bolton’s Four-Step Path to the Presidency
Step 1: Choose a high-profile, extraordinary Vice Presidential candidate. Mark Cuban is perfect.
Cuban is a self-made billionaire — a true Horatio Alger story, who can actually make America’s economy great again for a simple reason. He’s been doing it his entire life. He knows the value of free trade. And he understands the economic catastrophes, not to mention graft, associated with Trump’s choosing winners and losers.
Step 2: Bolton and Cuban immediately form The American Party with the announced goal not of establishing a third party, but of placing themselves as Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates on the 2028 ballot.
Step 3: Cuban expends the $100 million dollars it will take to get The American Party on the Presidential\Vice Presidential ballot in 2028 in all 50 states and D.C.
Step 4: The American Party starts fund raising. It will surely garner a massive war chest given that a) a majority of Americans disapprove, if not hate Trump’s presidential performance and b) a majority of Americans disapprove of or simply can’t stand the Democratic party.
Stealing Trump’s Spot Light
Trump’s power stems, in part, from controlling each news cycle and, thereby, normalizing his increasingly fascist behavior.
The latest example is raiding Bolton’s house. As the Wall Street Journal makes clear, this act had nothing to do with national security and everything to do with retribution.
The day before, Trump ordered the State of Colorado to violate Colorado state law, on pains of facing “harsh measures,” to free a convicted felon — someone who was caught illegally accessing election voting machines and giving access to the machines to a Michael Lindell associate.
The same day, Trump threatened to further threaten central-bank independence and fire a Federal Reserve governor for allegedly “falsifying bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms.” Trump knows a lot about this issue. Last February, he and his company were judged to have committed financial fraud in having "submitted blatantly false financial data" to "borrow more and at lower rates."
And, of course, there is Trump’s pretense of negotiating an end to the Ukraine war when his apparent real purpose was to provide his overlord, Vladimir Putin, with a photo op, recognize Russian ownership of Crimea, eliminate any prospect of Ukraine’s joining NATO, conveniently forget about toughening sanctions on Russia, and continue to provide minimal military support for Ukraine while charging European nations for whatever support is given.
Because our nation has so many media outlets, because Congressional Republicans, to a person, grovel at Trump’s feet, and because no one bothers to listen to Congressional Democrats, there is no single respondent to Trump’s daily transformation of our country into a despotic autocracy.
Bolton and Cuban can provide a single focused, daily response to Trump’s malevolence — one that will give him pause. Every Trump act will send the media to Bolton and Cuban for comment. They will provide intelligent, calm, rational, patriotic, and fact-based responses for all Americans to hear and absorb — not all of which will be negative as some of Trump’s actions make sense and are long overdue. But as Trump’s poll numbers drop and those for Bolton rise, Trump will get an instant read on the extent of American revulsion to each of his fresh acts of hell.
Economics Matters — Blog/Podcast/Financial Riddler/MaxiFi Puzzler
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Larry, I love your personal finance software but hate your politics. Pick a lane, your not good at both.
hard to imagine a scenario where I'd want Bolton to be President ... but its impossible to imagine that he - or damn near anyone - would be worse than Trump