Former National Security Advisor John Bolton said in an interview that his former boss, former President Trump “doesn’t have the brains” to be a dictator, as questions arise about what a second Trump term would look like.
Conservative French outlet Le Figaro asked Bolton if Trump had dictatorial tendencies in an interview published Thursday.
“He hasn’t got the brains! He’s a property developer for God’s sake!” Bolton replied.
Trump, the lone remaining contender for the GOP presidential nomination, met with Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán earlier this month. The meeting at his Mar-a-Lago estate continued his embrace of autocratic leaders who are part of pushing back on democratic norms.
Trump has offered praise for several foreign leaders of nations the U.S. views as adversaries. The former president said he has received “beautiful letters” from North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and called Chinese President Xi Jinping a “very good person.”
In the past, Trump has claimed he would not be a dictator if he were reelected, “except for day one.”
Bolton argued that “it is very likely that Trump will leave NATO if he is reelected.”
Trump has long criticized NATO members for failing to spend 2 percent of their GDP and threatened to leave the organization while in office. After telling Putin he could do what he pleases for delinquent NATO members, Trump has doubled down on his claims.
“Trump, when he has an idea, comes back to it again and again, then gets distracted, forgets, but eventually comes back to it and acts on it. That’s why leaving NATO is a real possibility. A lot of people think it’s just a negotiating tool, but I don’t think so,” Bolton said in the interview, translated by The Telegraph.