Former national security adviser John Bolton said “any normal person” would drop out of the presidential race if they were in former President Trump’s situation and facing numerous federal charges.
Bolton told SiriusXM’s Julie Mason in an interview on Tuesday that Trump is putting the entire GOP at risk and creating difficulties the country for his own personal gain by staying in the 2024 race.
“I think any normal person at as much risk as Trump is would be perfectly justified in saying, ‘I need time to devote full attention to defending myself against these unfounded charges and clearing my reputation and to avoid making the primary process complicated and risking the Republican Party nominating somebody who may later be convicted, I’m going to step back. Maybe I’ll step back in if I can gain acquittal at trial,’” Bolton said.
“That’s what a normal person would do. Not Donald Trump,” he continued. “He’s prepared to endanger the entire Republican Party and frankly make it very very difficult for the country solely for his own personal advancement.”
Trump has said he sees “no case” in which he would drop out of the race for the Republican nomination for president in 2024 amid the several legal challenges he is facing, including the 37-count federal indictment filed against him over his handling of classified and sensitive documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Bolton called on Trump to drop out of the race on Friday after the former president revealed that he was being charged in the case as “criminal charges are piling up around him.”
“If Trump truly stood for America First policies, he would support the rule of law instead of continually flouting it. Withdraw now!” he said.
Trump also said in April — after he was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in Manhattan — that he would not drop out, declaring that he would “never” drop out, even if convicted of the charges.
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R), who is running against Trump for the GOP nomination, has also called on the former president to drop out of the race, first saying it after the Manhattan charges and reiterating it following the federal charges.