Bolton on Ramaswamy’s Ukraine position: He ’emulates Trump every time he can’

John Bolton suggested Tuesday that Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy “emulates” former President Trump “every time he can,” as the political newcomer continues to isolate himself from the rest of the GOP with his controversial stance on Ukraine.

“I think Ramaswamy reminds me an awful lot of Donald Trump,” Bolton said in a Tuesday morning interview on CNN. “He has very firm opinions on subjects he knows absolutely nothing about.” 

Bolton, who served as national security adviser under Trump, pointed to the former president’s and Ramaswamy’s comments about the war in Ukraine. 

Trump has repeatedly suggested on the campaign trail that he would end the war in 24 hours, without offering specifics about how he would secure such an outcome. Ramaswamy has said he would convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to end Moscow’s military alliance with Beijing in exchange for ceding territory in eastern Ukraine, a position rejected by most of his fellow 2024 GOP hopefuls.

“I mean, they might as well be in kindergarten, talking about a very complex situation,” Bolton added. “But there’s no mistake, I think Ramaswamy emulates Trump every time he can.”

Bolton’s comments come after the 38-year-old conservative entrepreneur recently declined to call Putin a war criminal and instead suggested the International Criminal Court (ICC) should make such a determination.

“I think that Putin is a dictator, and I think that there are open questions that need to be adjudicated by the [ICC],” Ramaswamy said. “We have an [ICC] for a reason.” 

“My job as the U.S. president is to advance American interests,” he continued, adding, “We have to get the facts before we get to the bottom of that.”

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin and another Russian official in March over alleged war crimes involving the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia during the war.