John Bolton Has No Time For Eric Bolling's Defense Of Trump's Foreign Policy

A conversation over the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan got heated between the Newsmax host and former national security adviser.
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Former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton is as Republican as they come, but even he couldn’t allow Newsmax host Eric Bolling to pin the Afghanistan withdrawal entirely on President Joe Biden.

As a result, Bolton got Bolling all riled up during a segment Thursday night when Bolling asked Bolton about his 2020 quote to ABC News. Bolton said to the outlet at the time that the U.S. is “in a weaker position around the world” as a result of Trump’s foreign policy, before adding, “I think we have given up leadership in a wide variety of areas.”

Bolling then asked Bolton how he thought the world was safer now than when “we were under President Trump when he was willing to put a missile into Syrian airbases with Russians on the base? What’s going on here, sir?”

If Bolling expected Bolton to run with the Biden-bashing bone, he was sorely mistaken.

“[Trump] didn’t understand fundamentally much of anything about international affairs. His decisions were not based on a coherent philosophy or a coherent policy,” Bolton explained.

“But we were safer,” Bolling added.

The two continued talking over each other with Bolton attempting to remind Bolling that Trump made the deal with the Taliban that led to the Afghanistan withdrawal.

“Did that make us safer, Eric?” Bolton asked.

Bolling insisted Trump kept the Taliban on their back heels, which prompted Bolton to shake his head in protest. Bolling then tried to blame the Afghanistan withdrawal solely on Biden.

“That was Trump’s deal,” Bolton told Bolling, before adding, “Same thing they would’ve done under Donald Trump. Who cut the deal, Eric?”

Biden withdrew troops from Afghanistan in August 2021 as part of an agreement the Trump administration made in February 2020 with the Taliban.

“I really believe the Taliban wants to do something to show that we’re not all wasting time,” Trump said shortly after he signed the agreement, The New York Times reported. “If bad things happen, we’ll go back.”

Biden drew criticism for the withdrawal last year from both Republicans and Democrats, according to the New York Times. “I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit,” Biden said in a speech at the time.

More conversation followed before Bolton suggested Bolling “read the deal.”

He added: “I know you gotta go before you’re embarrassed even further,”

Watch the complete exchange below.

As you might expect, many Twitter users had thoughts about the fiery exchange.

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