John Bolton breaks silence after FBI raid: ‘Collapsing in confusion and haste’

Former national security adviser John Bolton isn’t backing down from attacking President Donald Trump since the FBI raided his home last week.

Federal agents conducted the search at Bolton’s house in Bethesda, Maryland, as part of a probe into his handling of classified documents. Several outlets reported that the investigation was ordered by FBI Director Kash Patel. Bolton was not detained or charged with any crime.

Bolton, who served under Trump between 2018 and 2019 during his first presidency, found himself at the center of scrutiny after he published a harshly critical memoir, “The Room Where It Happened,” that recounts his time in the administration. While some officials have claimed that Bolton disclosed classified information, the Justice Department abandoned its lawsuit against the book and dropped a separate grand jury investigation in 2021.

In his first comments on social media since the raid, Bolton wrote on X on Tuesday that Trump’s “Ukraine policy today is no more coherent than it was last Friday when his administration executed search warrants against my home and office.”

“Collapsing in confusion and haste, Trump’s negotiations may be in their last throes, along with his Nobel Peace Prize campaign,” Bolton continued, referencing the president’s desire for the prestigious award.

Bolton attached an op-ed that he wrote for the Washington Examiner, published on Monday, in which he offered a sharp critique of Trump after he separately met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent weeks. Trump has repeatedly told reporters that he’ll “know in two weeks what I’m going to do.”

“Trump’s furious pace trying to move an extraordinarily complex conflict to resolution over the past two weeks was one of several significant mistakes. It inevitably made reaching an agreement on a ceasefire, let alone a full-scale peace agreement, more difficult,” Bolton wrote.

“Of course, it’s never over until it’s over, especially with Trump. But his efforts over the last two-plus weeks may have left us further from peace and a just settlement for Ukraine than before,” he went on to conclude.

In a separate post on X, Bolton said that the Trump administration’s “failing diplomacy” has resulted in international bilateral relationships suffering “considerable damage.”

“The longer India hangs out to dry, the worse the New Delhi-Washington relationship gets,” Bolton wrote, in reference to how Trump’s decision to impose an additional 50% tariff on imports from the country has strained ties between the two nations.

Bolton had repeatedly criticized Trump’s handling of the Russia-Ukraine war in the weeks leading up to the raid. The day before, he posted that Putin’s “flattery campaign is working Trump over,” adding that “It’s important to remember: Ukraine didn’t take anything on, they were invaded.”

“If the White House wants to keep the table set for negotiations, backing down is not how you do it,” he said in another post. “Our adversaries listen to us when they see our capabilities are much stronger than theirs.”

Trump on Friday had initially told reporters that he didn’t know about the case.

“He’s not a smart guy, but he could be a very unpatriotic guy,” Trump said. “We’re going to find out.”

He later changed his tune, calling Bolton a “sleazebag”: “I could know about it. I could be the one starting it. I’m actually the chief law enforcement officer.”