My Take on Trump's Firing of NSA John Bolton

President Donald Trump just fired his third National Security Advisor after just a little more than two and a half years on the job, and in the typical Trump way as Bob Woodward described in his book Fear.  John Bolton apparently realized that he was on the "outs" with the President and offered his resignation, but Trump urged him to wait until the next day.  Meanwhile, a few hours later he went behind Bolton's back and publicly Tweeted that he was letting him go.  This undignified and disrespectful manner of handling subordinates by Donald Trump has been well-documented and anyone who joins up with his White House team is only engaging in self-deception if they think they will be treated any better...they must all be gluttons for punishment...

I admit to not being a fan of John Bolton's penchant for promoting military solutions to international problems.  On the other hand, his presence in the Trump Administration's inner circle gave both a sober, honest appraisal of our adversaries like Putin's Russia, North Korea, Iran, and the Taliban as well as an accountability check...if only in advisory status...to Trump's proclivity to suck up to autocrats. His advice about potentially going to war was just that: advice, and the President was always free to reject it...at least on this level I am grateful that Trump does not want us to become further entangled in protracted wars abroad...good for him!  But with Bolton's departure Trump has once again shown that he does not welcome a diversity of informed opinions on policy matters, but rather sycophants who will jump to agree with whatever he says...even when he misrepresents the facts or wildly changes his mind.  You may or may not think highly of Barack Obama's presidency (although I supported him in both 2008 and 2012 I've expressed my own share of criticisms) but he did consistently surround himself with informed advisors espousing opposing views and did not take dissenting policy opinions personally.  For whatever shortcomings in his governing style and policy decisions there may have been, I miss this quality of the previous president...and quite frankly, of just about all the others who preceded him from either party...