Trump attacks 'tough guy' John Bolton, accusing him of pushing for US invasion of Iraq

Search is on for president's fourth national security adviser

Donald Trump has launched a blistering attack on John Bolton, accusing the ousted adviser of making a number of “big mistakes”, including pushing for the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.

With Washington still reeling from the ousting of the president’s third national security adviser and the search under way for his fourth, Mr Trump claimed Mr Bolton had upset many in his administration. Despite that, he said he hoped he felt no ill will.

“So, John is somebody that I actually got along with very well. He made some very big mistakes,” Mr Trump said a day after Mr Bolton was either fired or resigned.

He said Mr Bolton’s suggestion of pursuing a so-called Libyan model for dealing with North Korea – a deal to secure sanctions relief by giving up its nuclear arsenal – had not gone down well in Pyongyang. After giving up his weapons programme, Muammar Gaddafi was killed by western-backed rebels in 2011.

“It set us back, and frankly he wanted to do things – not necessarily tougher than me – you know John’s known as a tough guy. He’s so tough he got us into Iraq,” said Mr Trump. “He’s actually somebody I had a very good relationship with, but he wasn’t getting along with people in the administration that I consider very important.”

Within Washington, it was widely known that Mr Bolton, a hardline hawk who supported regime change in Iran and Venezuela, opposed Mr Trump’s diplomatic outreach to North Korea and made little attempt to win over colleagues, and had started to fall out of favour.

His fall came as the star of secretary of state Mike Pompeo, another conservative hardliner but one who made a better effort of learning to work with Mr Trump, continued to soar. At a press conference on Tuesday – one that Mr Bolton was supposed to have taken part in – the secretary of state said he was “never surprised”, when asked if he had been blindsided by news of the dismissal of his rival.

Mr Trump insisted his administration was looking at five “very highly qualified” people to succeed the Mr Bolton, 70, even as his public rebuke of the departed official underscored the trepidation many might feel before taking on such a role.

“We’ll be announcing somebody next week, but we have some very highly qualified people,” he said.

Reports suggested that among the names being talked about were Stephen Biegun, the special US envoy on North Korea; Richard Grenell, the US ambassador to Germany; US hostage negotiator Robert O’Brien, and deputy secretary of state John Sullivan.

While Mr Bolton had publicly called for the US to bring about a change of government in Tehran, Mr Trump – having pulled the US out of the Iran deal that had been signed by Barack Obama – has indicated he believes he can broker a new arrangement.

Mr Trump was asked whether he would consider easing sanctions on Iran to secure a meeting with its leader Hassan Rouhani at this month’s UN general assembly in New York, and replied: “We’ll see what happens.”

He added: “I do believe they’d like to make a deal. I think Iran has potential and I think North Korea. I think Iran has a tremendous potential. They’re incredible people. We’re not looking for regime change.”

Earlier this year, Mr Bolton was blamed by the administration when efforts to move forward with denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula suffered a setback, when Mr Trump followed Mr Bolton’s advice at a summit in Hanoi and handed Kim Jong-un a piece of paper that bluntly called for the transfer of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and bomb fuel.

North Korea had denounced Mr Bolton as a “war maniac” and “human scum”. In turn, Mr Bolton had proposed using military force to overthrow the ruling Kim family.

Mr Trump told reporters on Wednesday: “This could be one of the most unbelievable experiments ever, North Korea.”

Additional reporting by Reuters