Former national security adviser John Bolton said on Tuesday that President Trump’s hot-mic moment at the White House on Monday reveals key insight into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approach to dealing with the U.S. president as he pushes for a diplomatic resolution to the war in Ukraine.
Ahead of the White House meeting with several of Europe’s most powerful leaders on Monday, Trump was captured on a hot mic telling French President Emmanuel Macron that he thinks Putin “wants to make a deal.”
“I think he wants to make a deal for me,” Trump continued, referring to Putin. “Do you understand that? As crazy as it sounds.”
In an interview on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” Bolton zeroed in on Trump’s use of the words, “for me,” saying the phrase is “evidence” of the message Putin likely conveyed to Trump when they met in Alaska on Friday.
Bolton said he suspects Putin appealed to Trump’s long-established desire to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for ending the war in Ukraine.
“It’s Putin saying, as he possibly did in Alaska, ‘Look, I can help you out here, Donald. You deserve the Nobel Peace Prize if you can bring peace here. And I want to help you. You know, this war never would have begun if you had been president,’” Bolton said, speculating about Putin’s message to Trump during their private meeting.
“That’s the way to Trump’s heart,” Bolton added.
Bolton said the fact the U.S. president thinks Putin wants to make a deal to help Trump personally is “evidence of how Putin negotiated him — and Trump is so proud of it, he tells Macron.”
Bolton, who served in the first Trump administration and has been a frequent critic of the president in the years since, expressed deep skepticism ahead of the Alaska meeting about the prospects of a peace deal. Bolton also served as the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
“I don’t think there’s a peace deal anywhere in the near future,” Bolton told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Friday.
“As long as Putin is advancing on the battlefield, even if it’s 3 yards in a cloud of dust, he’s not going to give up anything if he can get away with it,” he added. “And I think here, I think the White House has lowered expectations precisely for the reason that it’s too complicated to handle here.”