This week, Bolton shifted gears: As part of plea agreement with prosecutors, he’s prepared to plead guilty to a single count of retaining classified information contained in a private diary entry.

The president, who made no effort to hide his contempt for Bolton, initially had nothing to say publicly about Thursday’s developments, until a reporter broached the subject Friday afternoon during a brief Q&A on Air Force One.

Trump: “I was never much of a fan of John Bolton… He wanted to go to war with anybody that opened their mouths, anybody that talked… but he always wanted to kill people in war and that was okay for me as long as I didn't listen to it, which I never did.”

— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) 2026-06-05T18:15:38.766Z

...There’s a lot to digest in his minute-long answer, but three elements I think are especially important.

First, nine different people (and counting) have served as Trump’s White House national security adviser — more than any other president since the office was created in 1955 — but Bolton had the longest tenure, lasting roughly a year and a half. If Trump “never” liked, trusted, respected or listened to his longest-serving national security adviser, that says at least as much about the president as it does about Bolton.

Second, let’s not brush past the fact that Bolton is poised to plead guilty to, of all things, mishandling classified information. Trump might find that worthy of celebration, but it’s worth emphasizing that the president faced plenty of allegations of mishandling classified information himself, making this a rather awkward line of attack.

Finally, I couldn’t help but notice that the president, unprompted, boasted that he “helped” with the Bolton case “from the standpoint of encouragement.”

In other words, Trump, by his own admission, encouraged his team to go after a critic, who was ultimately charged and who will soon take a plea deal. (“We caught him,” the president said.)....

In October, when Bolton was first charged, The New York Times noted, “While the Bolton indictment contains an expansive evidentiary explanation, it remains unclear if the offenses outlined would have warranted an indictment — much less fast-tracked charges — if Trump had not publicly singled out Bolton for punishment.”

Eight months later, that sentence resonates for a reason