FOREIGN POLICY/NATIONAL SECURITY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s fired national security adviser, harshly criticized Trump’s foreign policy on Wednesday [9-18-19] at a private lunch, saying that inviting the Taliban to Camp David sent a ‘terrible signal’ and that it was ‘disrespectful’ to the victims of 9/11 because the Taliban had harbored al Qaeda. Bolton also said that any negotiations with North Korea and Iran were ‘doomed to failure,’ according to two attendees. All the North Koreans and Iranians want to do is negotiate for relief from sanctions to support their economies, said Bolton, who was speaking before guests invited by the Gatestone Institute, a conservative think tank. ‘He ripped Trump, without using his name, several times,’ said one attendee. Bolton didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Bolton also said more than once that Trump’s failure to respond to the Iranian attack on an American drone earlier this summer set the stage for the Islamic Republic’s aggression in recent months.”
–Daniel Lippman, “Bolton unloads on Trump’s foreign policy behind closed doors,” Politico, September 18, 2019 10:07 pm