Bolton compares Trump White House to pinball machine

Former White House national security adviser John Bolton compared working in President Trump’s White House to a “pinball machine” in an interview Monday with USA Today.

Bolton told the newspaper the experience was “like living inside a pinball machine,” saying Trump is “almost proud of not learning much about the subject matter of national security.”

Bolton also responded to Trump’s frequent insults since Bolton began promoting his memoir. The president has called his former adviser a “washed-up guy,” a “disgruntled boring fool” and a “sick customer” amid the legal battle over the book’s publication, suggesting last week after a court ruled publication could proceed that Bolton would “have bombs dropped on him.”

Bolton quipped to USA Today that “whoever hired Bolton should get fired.”

“I’ve been accused of a lot of things over the course of my career. I’ve never been accused of hiding my views,” Bolton added. “So I think [Trump] knew what he was getting.”

In the same interview, Bolton clarified his outlook on the 2020 presidential election after it was initially reported he planned to vote for former Vice President Joe Biden. Bolton told the newspaper he voted for Trump in 2016 but would not in 2020, also saying he would not vote for Biden due to Democratic national security policies.

During the interview, Bolton posed with his book in a manner clearly meant to reference the president’s own pose with a Bible outside of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington as part of a photo-op after federal law enforcement used chemical agents to clear Lafayette Square of protesters ahead of a 7 p.m. curfew.

“Everything in the administration is at risk of being torqued around Donald Trump’s personal needs,” Bolton told the newspaper. “This happens over and over again, this fusing of legitimate government interests with Donald Trump’s personal interests.”

Bolton said that while the president was free to stage photo-ops, “if the president wants a photo op, stand there by yourself.”

However, asked if he himself would have joined the administration officials who walked with the president across the cleared square to the church, Bolton responded, “I have to say in all honesty, I probably would have. And I would have regretted it later.”