During his time in the Trump administration, former national security adviser John Bolton was ignored by other cabinet officials and increasingly isolated due to his condescending attitude, former deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland wrote in an op-ed for Fox News on Monday.
“Bolton was so convinced of his superior intelligence that he was condescending to everyone, including the president,” she wrote. “He was increasingly isolated within the West Wing; cabinet officers ignored him and went behind his back directly to the president. He even avoided contact with his own National Security Council staff.”
McFarland wrote that Bolton and President Donald Trump clashed from the beginning of his tenure in the White House, and that when the president did not take his advice, Bolton “became the ‘anonymous source’ for reporters, dishing out tales of White House chaos and presidential incompetence.”
McFarland said several of her former NSC colleagues who stayed at the White House after she left told her that Bolton spent much time sitting in his office, with even his staff not sure what he did.
She said now it seems clear that he spent that time “turning his copious notes into a manuscript, presumably in anticipation of getting a lucrative book deal, and rushing it into print quickly” after he left office.
McFarland said it is also unclear why Bolton, if he truly thought Trump was so “unfit for office,” refused to testify during impeachment, speculating his motivation was financial since appearing before Congress publicly before his book was on sale “would have undercut its shock value — and his profits.”
She said “Washington has always attracted the venal and the vain, the ambitious and the arrogant, but even they must blanch at what John Bolton has done.”
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.