John Bolton told a journalist he thought President Donald Trump was running “a retribution presidency” which had already “come after me” just days before the FBI raided his Maryland home on Friday.
Newsweek contacted Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser turned trenchant critic, for comment on Saturday via email outside of regular office hours.
Why It Matters
Bolton served as White House national security adviser during Trump’s first term from April 2018 to September 2019, though he later said the president was “stunningly uninformed” in his 2020 memoir The Room Where It Happened.
Critics argue the Bolton raid is the latest in a series of Trump administration policies targeted at perceived critics. Previous moves have included executive orders targeting legal firms involved in cases against Trump and stripping political rivals of security clearance. However Trump supporters insist the raid demonstrates that nobody is above the law.
What To Know
On Friday, after news of the raid on Bolton’s home broke, Jonathan Karl, ABC News’s chief Washington Correspondent, shared a 35 second clip of an interview he conducted with the ex-national security adviser on August 10.
“The Retribiution presidency”Here’s what John Bolton said 12 days ago when I asked him he was worried Trump would come after him … pic.twitter.com/9Q3GgnV4kt
— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) August 22, 2025
In the discussion, Karl referenced media reports that Bolton was on an “enemies list” drawn up by FBI Director Kash Patel, and asked “are you worried that they’re going to come after you in some way?”
In response Bolton said: “Well I think he’s already come after me and several others in withdrawing the protection that we had from the Iranians for the attack on Qasem Soleimani so I think, and I said in the new forward of the paperback edition of my book, I think it is a retribution presidency.”
Within hours of Trump’s second presidential inauguration in January, Bolton was told his Secret Service protection was being withdrawn, despite threats from Iran that he faced. At the time Bolton said he was “disappointed but not surprised” at the decision.
In addition to the raid on his Mayland home FBI agents were seen in Bolton’s office in Washington D.C. according to the BBC. He later returned to his Maryland property but has not commented publicly on the raid.
Bolton was targeted as part of an ongoing investigation into the handling of classified documents, according to The Associated Press.
Trump was criminally charged over claims he mishandled classified documents after the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago resort in August 2022, though the case against him was later dismissed. Trump had always denied wrongdoing.
Speaking to ABC News in 2020, Bolton was fiercely critical of Trump, commenting: “I don’t think he’s fit for office. I don’t think he has the competence to carry out the job [as president].”
What People Are Saying
Speaking to NBC News’ Meet The Press vice president JD Vance said: “We’re in the very early stages of an ongoing investigation into John Bolton, I will say we’re going to let that investigation proceed. What I can tell you is that unlike the Biden DOJ and the Biden FBI our law enforcement agencies are going to be driven by law and not by politics. So if we think Ambassador Bolton has committed a crime of course eventually prosecutions will come.”
Asked if Bolton was being targeted as he is a “critic of Trump” Bolton replied: “No not at all and if we were trying to do that we would just throw out prosecutions willy-nilly like the Biden administration DOJ did.”
Speaking to reporters about the raid, President Trump said: “I know nothing about it. I just saw it this morning.”
On X, Democratic Party strategist Mike Bellis said: “No love for John Bolton. But the FBI is raiding him for criticizing Trump’s foreign policy. The government’s being weaponized to silence opposition—and it’s only going to get worse.”
Journalist and commentator Keith Olbermann posted on X: “I don’t give a rat’s ass for John Bolton but this is a political act, not an investigatorial one.”
What Happens Next
It remains to be seen whether Bolton will face any criminal charges following the raid on his Maryland home.
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