rightweb | Last August, shortly after John Kelly replaced Reince Priebus as
White House chief of staff and Steve Bannon was fired as the president’s
chief strategist, John Bolton complained that he could no longer get a meeting with Donald Trump.
Just three months later, however, on the eve of Trump’s belligerent
address to the United Nations, Bolton was once again in direct contact
with the president. How did this turnabout take place? The reconnection
was reportedly arranged by none other than Sheldon Adelson, the Trump campaign’s biggest donor.
Politico reported
that the most threatening line in Trump’s UN speech—that he would
cancel Washington’s participation in the Iran nuclear deal if Congress
and U.S. allies did not bend to his efforts to effectively renegotiate
it—came directly from Bolton and wasn’t in the original marks prepared
by Trump’s staff.
The line was added to Trump’s speech after Bolton, despite Kelly’s recent edict [restricting Bolton’s access to Trump], reached the president by phone on Thursday afternoon from Las Vegas, where Bolton was visiting with Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson. Bolton urged Trump to include a line in his remarks noting that he reserved the right to scrap the agreement entirely, according to two sources familiar with the conversation.
Some analysts have suggested that Bolton, an anti-Iran uber-hawk, has
the visit to Washington of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to
thank for his imminent elevation. But Adelson, a huge supporter of
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, likely played a critical role
in Bolton’s ascendancy.
