The Room Where It Happened

Having worked in the previous three Republican administrations, Bolton is eager to join the Trump administration after the 2016 election. That said, the former UN ambassador is to loath to take any job other than secretary of state or national security advisor. With Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson installed in the former position and retired general Michael Flynn—soon to be replaced by H. R. McMaster—installed in the latter, Bolton is content to advise Trump in an informal capacity. Of Tillerson, McMaster, and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Bolton pushes back on the conventional wisdom that these men were the so-called “adults in the room” restraining the president’s worst impulses. Instead, he believes that by working against the president’s opinions on matters like the Iran nuclear deal and the War in Afghanistan, “they fed Trump’s already-suspicious mind-set, making it harder for those who came later to have legitimate policy exchanges with the President” (2).

By April 2018, both the secretary of state and national security advisor positions are vacant, along with a series of other cabinet offices in Trump’s high-turnover White House. Trump elevates CIA Director Mike Pompeo to secretary of state while bringing in Bolton to serve as national security advisor.