‘Too Much Credit’: John Bolton Says Trump Would Not Have Done Coup Due to Lack of ‘Advance Thinking’

Earlier, extracts from an upcoming book written by Washington Post reporters who analyzed the last year of Donald Trump’s presidency were published in book form. According to the tome, top military officials feared that Trump was planning a coup after losing the 2020 presidential election.

Trump's former security adviser John Bolton, on Friday commented on recent reports about Trump’s “coup plans,” suggesting that the 45th US president would not have been able to carry out a takeover of the US government because he lacked “advance thinking.”

Speaking to CNN’s Brianna Keilar, Bolton was referring to Trump’s response to speculation about a coup, when the latter stated that “if I was going to do a coup, one of the last people I would want to do it with is General Mark Milley”. Bolton blasted the remark as “juvenile” and advised the Trump to show respect “to people who served the country well and served in his administration.”

Bolton offered that the thought of Trump plotting a coup “does give [Trump] too much credit.”

“That requires advance thinking, planning, strategizing, building up support, and I just don’t think he’s capable of that. What he was capable of was on a daily basis doing something more and more outrageous than he had done the day before, all to the same end of staying in power,” he said.

On Thursday, media published excerpts from the upcoming book, 'I Alone Can Fix It,' written by Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker. The two suggested that the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, took seriously the possibility that Trump would attempt to take power by force after losing the 2020 presidential election, discussing with his staff various scenarios to stop Trump.

Trump described the story as “ridiculous” and claimed he never planned a “coup” despite “massive voter fraud and irregularities during the 2020 presidential election” and never “threatened, or spoke about, to anyone, a coup of our government.”

“Sorry to inform you, but an election is my form of 'coup,' and if I was going to do a coup, one of the last people I would want to do it with is General Mark Milley," Trump declared.

John Bolton served as US National Security Adviser under the Trump administration, the fourth of six US national security advisors during Trump's single four-year term, retiring in September 2019 due to his "many" disagreements with the former president. Bolton was said to have argued for a more heavy-handed approach towards Russia, Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan. In particular, he sought regime change in Iran and pressed Trump to withdraw from the 2015 JCPOA nuclear agreement with Iran.