NATIONAL SECURITY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE/VENEZUELA: “President Donald Trump on Thursday [9-12-19] again claimed former national security adviser John Bolton, well-known for his hawkish impulses and inclination toward military intervention, was in fact ‘holding me back’ on certain matters of foreign policy…The president’s post was in response to a message from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who wrote online Thursday morning that he had spoken with Trump regarding Venezuela…Among his other international priorities atop the National Security Council, Bolton had championed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s attempted overthrow of Maduro — a regime change that remains unfulfilled eight months after the administration formally recognized Guaidó as the South American nation’s legitimate ‘interim president.’ Trump, who announced Bolton’s resignation on Tuesday, asserted to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that he regularly backed a more hardline brand of foreign policy than his ex-aide.”
–Quint Forgey, “Trump claims Bolton was ‘holding me back!’,” Politico, September 12, 2019 2:45 pm