Bolton: Personal Gain Is At The Heart Of Trump Family Decision-Making On U.S. Foreign Policy

Yesterday, South Carolina Republican Mark Sanford ended his half-assed primary challenge to Trump. He went out with a whimper. "The party," he said, "is populated by some really great people, but it’s underserved or misled by too many in leadership positions-- and I think President Trump and his approach has exacerbated this." And that was it. The other two Republicans sill trying to mount primary challenges against Trump, Bill Weld and Joe Walsh, are being blocked by the completely Trumpified Republican Party establishment and aren't making any headway either.

Meanwhile, Fox News has eliminated all but one of the few voices that have ever spoken up against Trump's excesses. The last remaining Fox personality who ever challenges Trump is the network's legal analyst Andrew Napolitano. On Monday, AP's David Bauder reported that "More than two decades into his career as a commentator at Fox News Channel, Andrew Napolitano reached a milestone of sorts when he was called a 'fool' on his own network. Not to his face, of course. But Tucker Carlson guest Joseph diGenova’s dismissal of Napolitano for saying that soliciting campaign aid from a foreign government is against the law illustrates the awkward place that the former New Jersey Superior Court judge finds himself in at Fox during the Trump era."

Napolitano has defended an impeachment inquiry that many Trump supporters call unfair, noting it follows rules written by Republicans. He said the White House counsel’s arguments against the process were “profoundly misguided,” and described Trump’s since-withdrawn proposal to host a summit of world leaders at his Miami resort as a constitutional violation “about as direct and profound ... as one could create.” He has questioned how seriously Trump takes his oath of office, and said he governs like a mafia don.

The commentator’s assertion that Robert Mueller had found 10 instances of obstruction of justice that could have resulted in a criminal indictment if Trump hadn’t been president earned him an angry tweet from the White House. “He’s beginning to sound like Judge Shepard Smith,” said Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the conservative Media Research Center.

It was Smith, the since-departed Fox News anchor who occasionally fact-checked claims by Fox opinion hosts, who came to Napolitano’s defense after diGenova’s remark on Sept. 24. Smith called the attack repugnant.

“It just sort of rolls off my back,” Napolitano said in an interview. “I realize that when you’re in this business-- and I’m on the opinion side, not the news side-- that it’s going to ruffle some feathers. I never take it personally.”

He suspects his opinions have cost him airtime on Fox, although he says it can be cyclical. While he appears regularly on the “Fox & Friends” morning show, he’s invisible on the prime-time opinion shows hosted by Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. Many of his commentaries appear online, taped on the plaza outside of Fox’s Manhattan headquarters.

Does he think some of his colleagues resent his opinions? “I don’t think so,” Napolitano said. “I think they’re mature enough to respect intellectual honesty.”

...When asked whether Trump should be impeached, Napolitano said that is a political judgment.

“If I could modify your question to ask if there’s a legal basis to argue high crimes and misdemeanors, then the answer is yes,” he said. “That’s really beyond dispute ... If I were a Democrat in the House, which I am not and never will be, I would vote to impeach.”

And if he were a Republican in the Senate?

“I think they’re going to find some of his behavior difficult to defend,” he said.

And then-- more interestingly and, for Trump, more dangerously-- is Bolton. Yesterday NBC News reporters Stephanie Ruhle and Carol E. Lee penned a piece about what an existential threat Bolton has been turning into for Trump. Last week, at Morgan Stanley’s global investment event in Miami, Bolton, as part of a private speech, derided Trump's whole approach to foreign policy and was particularly acidic towards the laughable roles played by Ivanka and Kushner-in-law. Bolton "painted a dark image of a president and his family whose potential personal gain is at the heart of decision-making." Ruhle and Lee wrote that "According to six people who were there, Bolton also questioned the merits of Trump applying his business acumen to foreign policy, saying such issues can’t be approached like the win-or-lose edict that drives real estate deals: When one doesn’t work, you move on to the next. The description was part of a broader portrait Bolton outlined of a president who lacks understanding of the interconnected nature of relationships in foreign policy and the need for consistency, these people said... Bolton is a potential linchpin witness in the inquiry into Trump’s efforts to elicit help from the Ukrainian government to investigate the family of former Vice President Joe Biden, given his central role in the White House during that time."

Bolton told the gathering of Morgan Stanley’s largest hedge fund clients that he was most frustrated with Trump over his handling of Turkey, people who were present said. Noting the broad bipartisan support in Congress to sanction Turkey after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan purchased a Russian missile defense system, Bolton said Trump’s resistance to the move was unreasonable, four people present for his speech said.

Bolton said he believes there is a personal or business relationship dictating Trump’s position on Turkey because none of his advisers are aligned with him on the issue, the people present said.

The Trump Organization has a property in Istanbul, and the president's daughter Ivanka Trump attended the opening with Erdogan in 2012. Though it’s a leasing agreement for use of the Trump name, Trump himself said in a 2015 interview that the arrangement presented “a little conflict of interest” should he be elected.

During an Oct. 6 phone call with Erdogan, Trump agreed to pull back U.S. troops from northeast Syria so Turkish forces could launch an attack against America’s Kurdish allies in the area. The presence of U.S. forces had deterred Erdogan from invading Syria, which he had threatened to do for years. Trump’s decision, followed by an order for all U.S. troops to exit Syria, was widely criticized even among the president’s Republican allies and was seen by many as a gift to the Turkish leader.

Erdogan is set to visit the White House on Wednesday.

Like other former Trump advisers, Bolton said regardless of how much evidence is provided to Trump that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, the president refuses to take any action because he views any move against Moscow as giving credence to the notion that his election is invalid, the people present for Bolton's remarks said.

At one point in his closed-door remarks, Bolton was asked what he thinks will happens in January 2021 if Trump is re-elected, people present for his remarks said. Bolton responded by taking a swipe at Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Ivanka Trump-- both of whom are senior White House advisers-- and Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, three people familiar with his remarks said.

Bolton said Trump could go full isolationist-- with the faction of the Republican Party that aligns with Paul’s foreign policy views taking over the GOP-- and could withdraw the U.S. from NATO and other international alliances, three people present for his remarks said.

...Bolton has been writing a book, having reached a deal with Simon & Schuster, and people present for his remarks in Miami said he suggested to the audience several times that if they read it, there would be much more material along the lines of what was in his speech.