John Bolton warned that Donald Trump is looking for one specific trait as he assembles his Cabinet and hires other top advisers ― and it’s not the one that usually comes to mind.
“The word ‘loyalty’ is often used,” Bolton told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “I think that’s the wrong word, actually. I think what Trump wants from his advisers is fealty, really a feudal sense of subservience.”
But Bolton ― who served as national security adviser under Trump and has since become a critic ― warned the president-elect that fealty would come with a cost.
“He may get that, but I will tell you: That will not serve him well over the course of his next term,” Bolton said. “And it certainly won’t serve the country well.”
Bolton also urged Trump’s picks to “hold onto their principles and their integrity” in the White House.
“I saw during my time, people that I thought had a lot of intellectual integrity and personal integrity just wrap themselves around the axle in order to stay in the Trump administration,” he said.
Trump has already made a number of eyebrow-raising picks as he assembles his team, including Fox News host Pete Hegseth as defense secretary. Trump is pushing Senate Republicans to enable recess appointments so that his most controversial nominations could take office without hearings.
Bolton also spoke out against a Trump plan to set up a review board to purge top military leaders, griped about a supposedly “woke” military, and more in the full interview:
