OREM, Utah — John Bolton has served under Republican presidents going back to Ronald Reagan. He was national security adviser under part of Donald Trump's first term in office.
Asked about the results of Tuesday's election?
"From a conservative, Republican point of view, I'm glad we’re going to get control of the Senate. I’m optimistic about the House," he said. "The real question is whether Trump wants to pursue a coherent policy especially in national security or whether it will be a repeat of the first term where certainly in the foreign and defense space it was almost chaotic."
Speaking to a crowd at the Utah Valley Growth & Prosperity Summit at Utah Valley University, Bolton admitted he didn't vote for Trump — he wrote in Trump's former Vice-President Mike Pence's name. Since leaving the Trump administration, Bolton has been critical of the president-elect.
"He doesn’t have a philosophy of national security, he doesn’t do policy in a conventionally understood meaning of that term," Bolton said in an interview with FOX 13 News. "Everything is ad hoc and transactional, and really most of that’s seen through the prism of how does that benefit Donald Trump?"
Bolton said he does not agree with use of the term "fascist" to describe Trump as other critics do.
"I don’t get hung up on the word. I think to be a fascist you have to have a full-scale philosophy which Trump does not have," he told FOX 13 News. "But I do think there are risks in his presidency. We saw some in the first term, I think it’s entirely likely we’ll see them again in the second."
Pressed on what those risks might be, Bolton said he believed Trump might utilize the U.S. Department of Justice or the Defense Department to go after adversaries.
"He’s said these things publicly," Bolton said of Trump.
But Bolton also said he does not view Trump's administration as an "existential threat" as some of the former president's fiercest critics do.
"I do think people who are saying Trump’s an existential threat to democracy are way overstating the case. I don’t think he is," Bolton said. "I think the Constitution is strong. Our institutions are strong. I think the people’s faith in the government remains strong. He will do damage as he did in the first term. I just hope it’s not irreparable this time."
In his remarks at the summit, Bolton urged ongoing support for Ukraine in its war with Russia and standing up to other foreign powers like China and Iran. Bolton also urged the incoming Trump administration to break with something the president-elect has talked about on the campaign trail.
"Particularly in his second term, I’m worried he wants to impose substantial tariffs on imports into the United States which risks crashing our own economy here as well as the global economy," he said.
That view on tariffs is shared by former Utah Governor Gary Herbert, who now heads the Herbert Institute for Public Policy at UVU. Herbert is happy that Trump won, saying "I think he brings the policies that will make America better." But Herbert warned against tariffs (something he clashed with the Trump administration on when he was governor).
"Tariffs? That’s just increasing the cost of goods and services and the consumer picks up that cost," he said.
Bolton said Americans should pay more attention to foreign affairs because it does impact the U.S. He also pushed back at his fellow Republicans who have adopted an "isolationist" view of foreign policy.
"It’s tempting to say why are we so worried about other countries' affairs? We do it because it’s important for our own security and our own life at home," he said.
