Former White House national security adviser John Bolton has disputed former President Trump’s account of an alleged conversation he had with Russian President Vladimir Putin before Russia invaded Ukraine more than two years ago.
During that conversation, according to Trump’s re-enacted account, the former president warned the Russian leader of the consequences if he launched an invasion.
“I said to President Putin, ‘Don’t do that, Vladimir,’ and I told him what I was going to do, and he said, ‘No way,’ and I said, ‘No,’ and that was the last time we had a conversation. He would never have done that. I’m very good friends with him,” Trump said Monday during an interview with tech mogul Elon Musk at X-Space, recalling the conversation. “I hope I can get along with him again. That’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”
Bolton, who served in the Trump administration from April 2018 to September 2019, responded to Trump’s story in an interview with CNN’s Caitlin Collins, saying, “I think Trump is making that up.”
“I can certainly say that Trump did not have that conversation with Putin when I was in the White House, and I don’t think he did before then, and I don’t know much about what happened after that,” he said, “but this is another example of Trump making something up that is difficult to prove or disprove.”
“He can say he had a private conversation at a dinner party. [Group of 20] “I don’t think there was a meeting or anything like that,” Bolton continued. “I don’t think Trump actually had an opportunity to have that conversation, but it fits with what Trump thinks his persona is.”
Bolton said Trump’s account of the conversation did not reflect the dynamic between the two leaders that he witnessed on multiple occasions.
“Personally, having seen Trump and Putin together many times, having heard their phone conversations, and having met Putin many times going back to October 2001, I believe Putin fundamentally views Trump as an easily gullible man,” Bolton said.
Bolton said he didn’t believe Putin respected the former president, but “he understands that he can get a lot out of flattering Trump.”
If Trump tried to resolve the war by getting Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the same room — as the Republican presidential candidate has said he would do — “Putin would go after Trump and hurt Ukraine,” Bolton predicted.
Collins re-read Trump’s comments, highlighting the “no way” and “no way” he used to describe himself and Putin. She asked Bolton if world leaders really spoke like that, saying it was “just like two high school girls.”
“No, that’s not even the way Donald Trump talks,” Bolton responded. “That’s the way he wanted to talk, the way he wanted to present himself as a great alpha male.”
“This is a Trump fantasy, and it shows that he doesn’t really understand what’s at stake here. He knows very little history. He knows very little about the history of Ukraine and Russia, which is very complicated even for experts,” Bolton said. “So to me, the way he’s recounting these conversations is just another piece of evidence that he’s unfit to be president.”
Trump fired the former national security adviser from his cabinet in 2019 over social media posts citing policy differences, and Bolton has become more publicly critical of his former boss in recent years, especially since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign for response.
