Trump Fires National Security Advisor John Bolton
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We ran the numbers: There are 1963 news articles covering this topic. 25% (490) are left leaning, 55% (1080) center, 20% (393) right leaning.
On Tuesday, President Trump announced on Twitter that he had fired John Bolton, his national security advisor. Charles Kupperman, Bolton’s deputy, is now serving as the acting national security advisor. Bolton’s firing is the latest in a long series of departures from the Trump White House, which has had a remarkably high turnover rate compared to previous administrations. The firings follow Trump’s announcement that he is no longer planning to hold a scheduled meeting with Afghan leaders and the Taliban, whom he had invited to Camp David to discuss the ongoing war in Afghanistan. Trump had reportedly excluded Bolton from the Afghanistan matter, as the two men had disagreed over Bolton’s hawkish position. Bolton was Trump’s third national security advisor, following predecessors H.R. McMaster and Mike Flynn.
Centrist coverage of Bolton’s departure from NPR summarizes Trump’s recent decisions with regard to Afghanistan as well as the history of the relationship between the two men. The article notes “Bolton's aggressive positions on Venezuela, North Korea and Afghanistan clashed with the comparative reluctance of his boss to entertain new confrontations and his enthusiasm about winding down some old ones.” The article also notes that the position of national security advisor does not require Senate confirmation, so Trump is free to pick whoever he wants to replace Bolton; however, it is unclear who he might be considering for the position.
A right-leaning article from the Daily Caller focuses on Senator Rand Paul’s response to Bolton’s departure. Paul suggested that the chances of war worldwide will go down significantly as a result of Bolton’s firing. He said that Bolton “has a naive view that believes we should recreate the world in our own image by toppling countries by violent overthrow and somehow democracy will prevail.” The article also notes that Paul has disagreed with Bolton for years and opposed his hiring as national security advisor.
A left-leaning article from the New York Times observes that among their other disagreements, Trump and Bolton even disagreed about the nature of Bolton’s departure: Trump said that he fired Bolton while Bolton insisted that he resigned of his own accord. The article describes their relationship as one in which Bolton repeatedly tried to restrain Trump from making what he considered to be dangerous concessions to the US’s enemies.
From the right
Rand Paul Responds To Bolton’s Resignation: ‘Chances Of War Worldwide Go Greatly Down’
Daily Caller