John Bolton, the perennial neoconservative warmonger, has once again proven his disdain for President Trump and his administration’s bold direction, this time attacking Trump’s choice of Kash Patel to lead the FBI. Patel, a loyal ally and effective operator within Trump’s first administration, has been tapped to clean up an agency long accused of bias and overreach. Predictably, Bolton couldn’t resist lobbing an absurd attack, likening Patel to Stalin’s notorious secret police chief, Lavrenty Beria.
In typical elitist fashion, Bolton took to social media to air his grievances, writing, “Trump has nominated Kash Patel to be his Lavrenty Beria. Fortunately, the FBI is not the NKVD. The Senate should reject this nomination 100-0.” This laughable comparison would be easy to dismiss if it weren’t emblematic of Bolton’s ongoing bitterness and irrelevance since Trump fired him as National Security Advisor in 2019.
Trump famously parted ways with Bolton, citing strong disagreements with his hawkish advice. At the time, Trump remarked, “I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation.” The split has since sent Bolton into a spiral of public criticism, making him a fixture among Trump’s detractors while alienating much of the Republican base.
Kash Patel’s nomination has struck a nerve with Bolton and the D.C. establishment because Patel represents a break from the status quo. Known for his work uncovering corruption within federal agencies and exposing the FBI’s mishandling of the Russia collusion hoax, Patel is precisely the kind of leader needed to restore the FBI’s integrity. Bolton’s over-the-top Stalinist comparison reveals more about his own petty grievances than it does about Patel’s qualifications.
Vice President-elect JD Vance wasted no time putting Bolton in his place, posting on X (formerly Twitter), “John Bolton has been wrong about everything so I guess Kash must be pretty awesome.” Vance’s quip perfectly captures the growing frustration with figures like Bolton, whose outdated foreign policy and establishment allegiances no longer resonate with a GOP base hungry for accountability and reform.
John Bolton has been wrong about everything so I guess Kash must be pretty awesome. https://t.co/V2wYNcqhmh
— JD Vance (@JDVance) December 1, 2024
As the Senate prepares to consider Patel’s nomination, Bolton’s outlandish attacks serve as a reminder of why voters rejected his brand of politics in favor of Trump’s America First agenda. With Patel at the FBI’s helm, Trump’s second term promises to be a reckoning for the entrenched bureaucracies Bolton so ardently defends.
Leave a Comment