John Bolton, former national security adviser in the Trump administration, said Friday former President Donald Trump should withdraw from the race for the 2024 Republican nomination because of the criminal charges he is facing in New York and Florida.
"Donald Trump should immediately withdraw as a candidate for president," Bolton tweeted. "Criminal charges are piling up around him. If Trump truly stood for America First policies, he would support the rule of law instead of continually flouting it. Withdraw now!"
Bolton has been a harsh critic of the former president after leaving the administration in 2019, although he did speak in favor of Trump after he was indicted in April on 34 felony counts of filing false business records in the first degree by Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.
But after Trump was indicted by special counsel Jack Smith for his handling of classified records at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Bolton said the prosecutions of Trump sow even more division in the U.S., and that only benefits adversaries such as Russia and China.
"I can assure you that the China/Russia axis and their associates want Trump to continue his mockery of a campaign despite more indictments," Bolton wrote in another tweet. "Our division is their gain. A weak and distracted American president is an opportunity they could never create for themselves. A Trump-Biden rematch is their dream."
Bolton also called in another tweet for the GOP to create a rule where a person facing federal or state indictment is ineligible to run for president, although such a rule likely would be unconstitutional. The Constitution does not prevent anyone under criminal investigation, or someone in prison, from running for president.
"The @GOP should adopt a rule that no one under Federal or state criminal indictment is eligible to be nominated for POTUS," Bolton wrote. "It sets a very low bar that those aspiring to reach the highest office should have no trouble clearing."
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