National security adviser John Bolton will travel to Singapore as part of President Trump’s entourage for his North Korea summit, amid reports he has been sidelined from the nuclear talks.
“The national security adviser is going. He’s going to Singapore. He’s going to be a part of those talks,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told reporters at a breakfast sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor.
Bloomberg reported chief of staff John Kelly and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will also join Trump.
{mosads}
Conway said Pompeo “is clearly taking the lead on negotiations” around the June 12 summit in Singapore.
Her comments came a day after CNN reported Bolton was not in Trump’s meeting last week with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s right-hand man, which it wrote is a sign that he has lost influence with the president.
Conway said the fact Bolton was not in the Oval Office meeting with North Korean official Kim Yong Chol “means absolutely nothing,” adding it could mean he was occupied with other tasks or not part of a specific team.
Trump was reportedly angered by Bolton’s suggestion the U.S. could use a “Libya model” to craft a nuclear pact with North Korea. Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi was ousted from power and killed eight years after surrendering his nuclear weapons in a deal with the Bush administration.
The comments angered North Korea and helped spark a war of words that led Trump to cancel the summit. But plans for the summit were put back on after Trump’s meeting last week with Kim Yong Chol.