Former adviser to Donald Trump boasted of having participated in the organization of coups | International | News

John Bolton, who was National Security Advisor to former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021), boasted on Tuesday of having participated in the organization of coups, although he avoided giving examples.

Bolton made the remarks while being interviewed on CNN to discuss the January 2021 assault on Capitol Hill by a mob of Trump supporters, an event that is being investigated by a congressional committee.

During the conversation, journalist Jake Tapper said that “you don’t have to be brilliant to pull off a hit,” to which the former adviser replied, “I don’t agree. As someone who has helped plan coups, not here but in other countries, I can say that it takes a lot of work.”

When the interviewer insisted on this point, Bolton declined to comment on “specific cases.”

He then cited the political crisis in Venezuela in 2019, when the US government of which he was a part recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as interim president.

Regarding that episode, Bolton said on Tuesday that “the opposition tried to overthrow an illegitimately elected president (Nicolás Maduro) and failed.”

In addition, he considered “laughing” to believe that Trump, with whom he ended up fighting, is “not even half as competent as the Venezuelan opposition” to organize a coup.

Bolton, considered a Republican “hawk” in favor of US interventionism, served as White House National Security Adviser from 2017 until Trump fired him in 2020 for disagreements over Venezuela policy.

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