Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. John Bolton from the very beginning has been someone of opinion, and he's been someone who said it as clear as he can. People that are for John Bolton, his critics as well see a distinguished career in public service, and he has been very visible in the last number of weeks on the formation of the second Trump administration cabinet. John, thank you so much for joining Bloomberg Today. I'm just going to
cut to the chase. Sometimes you write an essay and then you wrote in the Wall Street Journal an essay on mister Patel, who is being considered to run the FBI, and line by line you went through it. Why did you put that much energy into that essay on mister Patel, our potential leader of the FBI.
Well being Director of the FBI is one of the most important jobs in government, and it's been held by some distinguished people and by some people who are not so distinguished. But the power in that job is just enormous, and I wanted to show why, in my view, Patel wasn't qualified, not in terms of his competence or his experience or his character. I just thought it was important for Senators to have that in mind.
The senators are the key. I can state, folks, my book of the year a number of years ago, ready, twelve years ago, eleven years ago Garrett Graf The Threat Matrix Matrix the FBI at War. It is a spectacular five hundred pages on the complexity of the FBI. John Boltons, you believe that the president elect doesn't understand the day to day grind of what the FBI does.
Yeah, I think Trump has very little understanding how most of the government operates.
He never took the time to learn it.
He didn't know much before he be came president, and he didn't learn very much when he was president. The FBI has roughly, I don't know, thirty eight forty thousand employees, most of whom spend their time working on investigating real crimes or real threats to the United States from overseas. And the idea that you're going to unleash somebody whose main job, in Trump's view, is hunting down Trump's enemies really demeans the incredibly important work of the overwhelming majority
of people in the department. I'm not saying the FBI is free of problems. It certainly is not. But if you want to have somebody come in and fix it, correct the problems, reform it, straighten it up, pick somebody like William Webster, who, when Ronald Reagan appointed him, was a distinguished federal judge and has since written he doesn't think either Cash Betel or Tulsey Gabbert or fit for the jobs they've held. Pick somebody who's got a background
have been taken, wearity and judgment. Who's going to resolve the problems you're worried about and not make them worse?
John for some of the candidates are point ease that you have raised some flags on it. Do you believe the Senate will in fact challenge them going forward in the confirmation process.
Well, I think there's a real chance of it.
You know, the idea that the president nominates somebody and that choice is automatically accepted by the Senate doesn't is born out by history. I think the president's entitled the real deference in his picks, particularly in terms of what the appointees think about policies. That's what the president was elected to do. But the function of the Senate, the Federalist papers make this very clear, is to make sure that people who lack character and competence don't get through.
Now we're all waiting.
After the first of the year for the FBI full field background investigations to come in. That's going to be interesting to read for the senators on the key committees. And then they're going to be confirmation hearings where if senators Republican and Democratic are doing their jobs, they'll ask the nominee some hard questions.
This is still a long way from being over.
John, From a national security perspective, what do you think the to do list should be for this incoming administration? Maybe for the first hundred days, if not longer.
Well, I think it's a long list.
I think the world is very threatening to American interest in a variety of places. Certainly the Middle East is on fire, the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, the Chinese threat to Taiwan and the South China Sea remain, and I think there needs to be a real focus on going after those countries that have become adversaries of ours and putting in place both the policies we need to
protect their interests, but also getting resources. Maybe the highest priority the president has is getting a better defense budget.
A substantially larger defense.
Bu not to say that there aren't savings that can be had at defense. There certainly can be. But we face threats that are rising around the world, and we've had, over a sustained period of time inadequate resources to do the job. Our military is way overstretched and we are vulnerable.
It ways to go here, joining us folks as John Bolton, of course you know him from as many years of service to America. Always controversial, always interesting, and opinionated as well. In nineteen sixty four at the McDonough's School, Owings Mills, Maryland, he ran the students for Goldwater campaign. Did John, I go back to your first public service as a summer intern from the Vice President from Maryland. Mister Agnew, you've seen some White House movement away from the uproar of
the first Trump administration. You are articulate about the generals, the admirals. It's surrounded President Trump in his first term. The military is now seeing the Trump process. Can he get the same quality military advice now that he got in January six years or eight years ago.
Well, I think it's open to question.
I think part of the Trump effect is to try and intimidate people to prevent them from speaking out. I hope that's not the case. The civilian relationship is critical for our national security, and civilian leadership obviously is dominant, but it depends on getting straightforward, honest military advice, and if the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the other Joint Chiefs,
the combatant commanders continue to provide that. Obviously, it's up for the President to make the final decision, but they need to tell him what the facts are, whether he wants to hear him or not.
Do you think that what is your confidence level that that will occur this second time around, because there are some concerns out there in the second Trump administration, he'll be more authoritative, he'll have more confident and it's in his moves maybe at the expensive advice from others.
Well, I think it's very likely that will happen, but you can't tell until the rubber meets the road. We need to know who the Secretary of Defense is going to be. That's not resolved yet either, and know a lot more about what the other top civilian officials that defense are going to look like. But I think they are going to be crises that are going to require some pretty tough politico military decisions very early in Trump's term.
We don't get to call the shots on when things in the wider world happen.
It could happen on day one.
In besser Bold. One final question. This is for Nick Wadams in Washington, and it's on the machinery here. I see Iran pulling out of Syria. It's unfair to you because I guess you don't have all the present intelligence. But is it legitimate that Iran is retrenching from the greater Middle East?
Look, Iran is in deep trouble.
It's been dealt punishing blows by Israel against Hamas and Hebella to tears proxies that were major elements of Iranian power. The fall of the Aside regime in Syria, it's a third critical blow. I think the Iotolas are on the back foot now, and this is a point to press them hard. It may well be the regime itself is shaking. At the same time, we've got to worry about making sure that the new government in Syria doesn't establish a
terrorist state, a kind of Afghanistan on the Mediterranean. Something we need to pay a lot of attention to We've got a lot at stake there.
John Bolton, thank you so much for joining us today. We look forward to speaking to you again. The former Ambassador John Bolton