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Well, I was joined earlier this afternoon by Trump's national security adviser in his first term
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and now his arch-critic, Ambassador John Bolton. And I asked him, with Trump insisting today that he's hacked off with Putin
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can we trust him not to change his mind again? Well, no, I don't think it will last long
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In fact, he said later in the day after that statement that actually he still thought Putin wanted peace
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What Putin has received from Trump already are incredible concessions. the concession that it's not the U.S. position to insist on Ukraine's restoration of full
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sovereignty and territorial integrity. No NATO membership, no NATO security guarantees, no U.S. security guarantees in effect. Putin will take those, has taken those and put them in his
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pocket. And now he's pressing Trump to see what else he can get. He can make a mistake. He's a
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good manipulator of Trump, but he's not infallible. And I think here he may have pushed a little bit
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on the limit and we'll see what happens. Just a bit too far, because it's curious that he's been
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demanding that President Zelensky is effectively removed from power because he's not democratically
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elected. And that's something President Trump himself has more or less said already
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Yeah, look, I think what Trump wants is a quick ceasefire or something he can declare victory on
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What he really wants is the Nobel Peace Prize, because after all, Barack Obama got one, didn't
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deserve it and why shouldn't donald trump get gets one he said this in the campaign that that
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the war never would have occurred if he had been president so what he wants is this war behind him
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and his speed is more important than substance to him the other thing that all of us on this side of the pond are trying to work out is how long this MAGA supremacy is going to go on We had Donald Trump again talking
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raising the possibility of a third term, even though that seems to contradict the U.S
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Constitution dramatically. Do you think that's a possible outcome? Do you think he really believes
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that he can do that? I think he thinks it's worth the scam. Why not and see what the gullible think
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There is zero chance it's going to happen. If he tries to do it, it will go to court
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It will get to the Supreme Court. It's the uniform interpretation of every responsible constitutional scholar that two terms means two terms
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If Trump is right, after all, Barack Obama could run again. And that isn't going to happen
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So why not confuse the opposition? It's beginning to feel to us a little bit more like a European monarchy than an American republic
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Well, I don't think that will last long either. It's something that I don't think the American people voted for in November of last year
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They voted because they were concerned about high prices and economic uncertainty
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They didn't vote for most of what Trump has been focused on. And if the tariffs that are about to come into effect have the consequence that every economist worth his salt knows will happen
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and there are negative economic effects in the United States, it will accrue immediately to the detriment of Trump and Republicans in Congress
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who have to face almost all of them voters again next year
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So that's very interesting because, again, from here, it appears that President Trump has almost no pushback
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almost no limitations at the moment. He's got Congress, he's got the Supreme Court
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and the normal countervailing forces as J Galbraith used to put it aren there Well I don think so I mean Republicans have been too deferential to him because they scared
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Many of them of a Trumper primarying them for the nomination. I think they're beginning to stand up
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The Democrats have a problem. They're like an EKG graph that's gone flatline
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I don't know where the Democratic Party is. They're not much of an opposition. I do disagree with you on the Supreme Court
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I think the judiciary is and will remain independent. I think they'll call him like they see him, and Trump will win a few, but he'll lose a lot in the Supreme Court
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That's really interesting. Sticking with my parallel, my metaphor, really, of it being more like a monarchy
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where you're looking at the court of Henry VIII and all those people circling around him
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wondering who's going to take over, who's going to be next. There's strong rumors that Trump and Elon Musk are beginning to fall out
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and that the sort of supremacy of Musk is not going to last very long. Yes, I think that's right
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The Oval Office is a big office, but it's not big enough for those two egos to be in it simultaneously
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And bear in mind that Musk was born in South Africa, so he cannot be president
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If he doesn't start looking to the stock price for Tesla and some of his other companies
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I think he's going to have unhappy shareholders. So I would say I'll pick a time by the summer
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I think it'll be over. That's really interesting. And thinking of Musk, I also think of J.D. Vance
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because he's somebody who assumes, I suppose, that he will eventually inherit the MAGA period
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the MAGA movement. And yet the more he hears Donald Trump talking about a third term
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even if it not likely the more worried he must get Yeah I think the strongest proponent of the 22nd Amendment now in washington is probably jd vance but uh you know remember americans have only elected a sitting vice
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president to the presidency twice one was george hw bush the other was martin van buren so you know
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it's a long time back before we have another one i think if if trump runs into economic trouble if
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the tariffs produce economic distress if other issues arise the administration could be so tainted
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by that that vance couldn't escape it like kamala harris couldn't escape the biden administration
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vice presidents do have that problem i i don't doubt vance is thinking constantly about 2028
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but remember he's plastic he he called uh trump a version of hitler in 2016 now he's his biggest
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backer if he can spin on that dime he can spin on another one so in short for all of america's
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friends over here who are worried about america who feel the american constitution maybe even
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american democracy are somehow under threat you would say stop worrying yeah look it's it's going
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to be challenging times he will do damage he might do some damage that's irreparable withdrawing from
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nato could well be irreparable uh so so what's important now is remember he's only got 46 months
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left. The world will go on presumably for millennia after that. We should focus on mitigating the
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damage he does in the near term and thinking about how to repair the damage that he's done after he
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gets out of office. Stay calm. Don't say things that give him an excuse to withdraw from NATO
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or otherwise split the alliance. Just stay calm. Very, very good advice. Ambassador Bolton
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John Bolton, thanks so much for coming in and talking to LBC
