Former White House national security adviser John Bolton disputed former President Trump’s account of a conversation he allegedly had with Russian President Vladimir Putin prior to Russia invading Ukraine more than two years ago.
In that conversation — according to Trump’s retelling of events — the former president warned the Russian leader of the consequences of launching an invasion.
“I said to Putin, ‘Don’t do it, Vladimir.’ And I told him things that what I would do. And he said, ‘No way.’ And I said, ‘Way.’ It’s the last time we had the conversation. He would have never done. I get along very well with him,” Trump said Monday in an interview with tech mogul Elon Musk on X Spaces, recalling the alleged conversation. “I hope to get along well with him again. It’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”
Bolton, who served in the Trump administration from April 2018 to September 2019, responded to Trump’s story in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, saying, “I think Trump’s making that up.”
“He certainly didn’t have that conversation with Putin when I was in the White House. I don’t believe he had it before that. I can’t really speak to what came after,” he said. “But this is another case of Trump making things up that it’s hard to prove or disprove.”
“He can say he had some private conversation at a dinner, at a [Group of 20] meeting, or something like that. I don’t think it happened,” Bolton continued. “And I don’t think that there was really an occasion for Trump to have that conversation. But it fits the persona that Trump thinks he has.”
Bolton said Trump’s account of the alleged conversation did not reflect the dynamic that he witnessed between the two world leaders on multiple occasions.
“I personally — having watched Trump and Putin together, on several occasions, having listened into their phone conversations, having, myself, met Putin on a number of occasions, going back to October of 2001 — I think that Putin essentially thinks that Trump is an easy mark,” Bolton said.
Bolton said he doesn’t think Putin respects the former president, “but he understands that using flattery with Trump can get him a long way.”
If Trump did get Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a room together to solve the war — as the GOP nominee for president said he intends to do — Bolton predicted, “Putin would take Trump to the cleaners, to Ukraine’s detriment.”
Collins read again from the Trump quote, emphasizing the “no way” and “way” language Trump attributed to himself and Putin. She asked Bolton if world leaders truly talk to each other that way, saying, “I mean, it sounds like two high school girls.”
“No, it’s not even how Donald Trump talks,” Bolton responded. “It’s how he wished he talked, and how he wished he could show that he’s the big alpha guy.”
“This is imagination on Trump’s part. And it shows he really doesn’t understand what’s at stake here. He knows very little history. He certainly knows next to nothing about the history of Ukraine and Russia, which is deeply complicated, even for experts,” Bolton said. “So, to me, the way he recounts these conversations is one more demonstration that he’s just not fit to be president.”
Trump fired the former national security adviser from his Cabinet in a social media post in 2019, citing policy disagreements. Bolton has become an outspoken critic of his former boss in recent years, especially after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign for a response.