John Bolton, who was Donald Trump’s national security adviser, admitted on television to having prepared several

UNITED STATES – Sin of pride and confusing admission. These days in the United States a parliamentary commission is presenting the conclusions of more than a year of investigation and questioning different personalities to demonstrate the role that Donald Trump played in the invasion of the Capitol in January 2021, seeking to prove that the former president wanted to pull off a coup.

A subject on which John Bolton, ex-adviser to the billionaire on national security, made a memorable blunder this Tuesday, July 12 on CNN. Invited to comment on the facts, the man who was also United States ambassador to the UN and adviser to George W. Bush declared that “nothing that Donald Trump did after the election, like his lie that the results were rigged, cannot be defended”.

However, John Bolton – very critical of the former head of state – at the same time wanted to qualify another part of the accusations against Donald Trump. “We hear that all this would be a cleverly prepared coup d’etat that goes against the Constitution. But that’s not how Donald Trump proceeds”, he claimed, specifying that one event had led to another on the basis of intuitions and envy of a Donald Trump who “n’t listen to no one” but him. “This is not an attack on our democracy, this is Donald Trump thinking about Donald Trump first and trying to protect himself.”

Relaunched by CNN journalist Jake Tapper, who replied that you did not necessarily have to be a brilliant strategist to plan a coup, and clearly that Donald Trump’s instinctive functioning did not exonerate him, John Bolton had this response: ”I disagree. As someone who has planned coups, not here but in other places, I can tell you that it takes a lot of work.”

“This is not what Donald Trump did, even if in the end, he ended up unleashing the demonstrators who attacked the Capitol”, then continues John Bolton, venting on his fear of see the parliamentary committee and public opinion react more than reason by imagining a Machiavellian strategist president.

Except that the CNN journalist was far from having forgotten the words of his interlocutor. To the point of reviving it a few minutes later in the interview. “You told us about your expertise in coup planning…” To which a surprisingly laughing but embarrassed John Bolton replied that he did not wish to “go into details”.

“But are we talking about successful coups?” And the interviewee responds to him, with barely contained pleasure, on an attempt to overthrow power in Venezuela in 2019 during which President Nicolas Maduro was for a time threatened by an opponent, Juan Guaido, supported by Washington. “Not that we had much to do with it,” says John Bolton anyway, “but I saw what it takes to mobilize as a means to seize power…”

“But the idea that Donald Trump could have been even half as sure as those Venezuelans who wanted to overthrow a president brought to power illegally is hilarious,” even continues the former presidential adviser. He then acknowledges that he is not exhaustive in his mention of the “coups d’etat” in which he took part.

Great architect of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, John Bolton is well known in the United States for his warmongering positions. During the Trump years, which he advised between 2018 and 2019, he notably participated in the affirmation of a very tough American discourse against Iran, Afghanistan or North Korea.