Donald Trump will receive intelligence briefings once he officially becomes
the GOP nominee.
The same Donald Trump who told the Russians about classified
Israeli Intel in the Oval Office.
The same Donald Trump who tweeted an image of Iranian
capabilities from a classified spy satellite.
The same Donald Trump who showed the Japanese Prime Minister
highly sensitive papers on North Korea at a patio dining
table at Mar A Lago.
The same Donald Trump who hoarded hundreds of classified documents
at Mar A Lago and the same Donald Trump who
had his intelligence access revoked for it after he left
office. So why is that Donald Trump getting access back?
Joining us now, former National Security Adviser to President Trump
John Bolton.
Really good to have you,
ambassador. Let me ask you,
why is this? Why is it a danger to give
him access to intelligence?
Well, I think Trump demonstrated during his presidency and certainly
in the handling of the documents after his presidency,
that he doesn't pay adequate attention to safeguarding these secrets.
And the dangers, I think,
commonly known of when they get into the wrong hands
of not just revealing the information
itself, but but risking the sources and methods that are
used to procure the information.
So I'm somewhat perplexed myself that the
Biden White House has apparently agreed that he'll get these
briefings.
I don't think it makes any sense,
and I think it really puts whatever he is told
at risk of being disclosed.
So the Biden administration, according to sources talking to NBC
News,
has said that the reason they're doing is this is
because they want to maintain a semblance of normalcy in
the campaign.
So President Trump can't. Former President Trump can't paint himself
as the victim of politicization.
Politicization.
Well, good luck with that.
I mean, let's go back to the
original purpose really President Truman had in mind when he
first authorized.
I'm pretty sure it was Truman first authorized
giving these briefings to presidential candidates.
It was to avoid a candidate saying in ignorance something
that could
could impair the national security of the United States.
So it wasn't to satisfy the curiosity of the candidate.
It was to protect the overall national interest.
You know, we had a hard time getting Trump to
pay attention in many,
many days of those briefings.
And when he did really pay attention,
it was often because he wanted to keep a document
or something that
from time to time he went on and leaked.
I mean, I I think if you're going to do
these briefings,
they ought to be done,
right? So I also disagree with some
former intelligence community people who say,
well, if he's going to get the briefings,
make sure they're pablum, basically.
I'm summarizing it. I I don't like that either,
either. Give the briefing the way it should be,
or let's just dispense with it.
Let Trump say whatever he wants.
So there are voters out there who look at Donald
Trump's time as president,
during press, as president, and say nothing really bad happened.
Or they look at, you know,
what he tweeted out or what he was discussing with
the Japanese or what he,
you know, told the Russians in the Oval Office or
the classified documents at Mar A Lago.
And they'll say nothing bad happened.
There's been no effect of this,
you know, alleged carelessness with intelligence or classified
information. Why do you argue that they should take it
seriously?
Well, because the people who say that can't possibly know
whether it's true or not.
One of the things other governments do is keep a
better secret sometimes than we do.
So being able to use this information,
which they can put into an overall mosaic of what
they're getting
from other sources, could well benefit them
in ways that the public can't possibly know.
And I would say with respect to whatever he showed
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,
that's an ally of the United States,
you know, we we share a lot of intelligence with
our allies.
Trump's mistake was doing it on the patio of Mar
A Lago where where his guests could see it as
well.
If you're going to reveal information to an ally,
do it strategically, not not just for the sake of
showing that you know something that that the ally or
your adversary does.
That's the problem with Trump.
He can't understand why it is that he should be
constrained and talking about the information.
So I guess I would say if the Biden administration
is determined to let this happen,
I'd impose conditions on the briefings.
I wouldn't let any advisers in the room with Donald
Trump.
So if the information does leak out we know exactly
where it came from and I wouldn't show him or
leave him any documents or photographs.
I'd just give a verbal briefing that hopefully could minimize
the downside risk of of him revealing something.
If Donald Trump is elected again.
What happens to NATO?
Well I'm I'm very concerned.
I think he's bound and determined to withdraw the United
States from NATO.
I think the the notion that he somehow
using this as a bargaining leverage to get other NATO
members to increase their defense spending is wrong.
Thousands of people over decades,
myself included, as a small part of that,
have pushed our allies to spend more on defense so
we could strengthen NATO.
I think Trump uses the
the failure of some of these allies to spend what
they themselves committed to spend 10 years ago,
not to strengthen NATO but to weaken it.
I think the risk of withdrawal is very real.
The Hungarian president who's close with Vladimir Putin,
Viktor Orban, is visiting Donald Trump at Mar A Lago
today.
What do you make of that?
Well, you know, I first met Viktor Urban back in
the 90s,
right after the the the Warsaw Pact collapsed when he
was a young,
small L liberal leader of of forces in Hungary.
It's an amazing transformation. But honestly,
his greatest sin is is not his domestic policies,
which we can certainly debate.
It's that he's betraying the Hungarian Revolution of
1956 by getting close to to the Kremlin.
You know, back then his fellow Hungarians were fighting for
freedom against the Soviet Union
and and today he has drawn Hungary closer to Russia.
I think betraying them and really betraying the NATO alliance
that that's that's a problem.
Imagine what he and Trump are talking about when they
talk about NATO.
You've been long saying that Donald Trump shouldn't get close
to this guy.
You were against him coming to the White House but
were overruled by Mick Mulvaney.
Well you win some and you lose some that's that
goes with the territory.
I I just think that the the way Hungary behaved
in in holding up along with Turkey,
the admission of Finland and really holding up the admission
of Sweden,
the NATO was outrageous. Hungary
as the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union were collapsing
back in 1990 and 91.
Hungary was one of the very first countries,
I think the 1st, to come to NATO and say
we want to be admitted.
Hungary wanted to join the Western European group of countries
in the UN.
They, they knew what it was like to be under
Russian domination.
They wanted nothing to do with it.
It's just another example of Orban not fully understanding his
own
country's history.
Ambassador John Bolton, thank you very much for joining us.
We appreciate it.