The Wall Street Journal isn’t mincing words in its criticism of President Trump, even as it faces a lawsuit filed by the president over its reporting on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
In its latest op-ed, the paper’s editorial board slammed Trump’s “vendetta campaign” against his former national security advisor, John Bolton.
Bolton’s house and office in Maryland were raided by the FBI on Friday morning in a move that the Journal wrote was “hard to see… as anything other than vindictive.”
“It is increasingly clear that vengeance is a large part, maybe the largest part of how [Trump] will define success in his second term,” the authors wrote.
Trump has claimed that he knew nothing about the raid, but the Journal noted his past critiques of the national security hawk—and the fact that Trump ended Bolton’s protective security detail immediately upon taking office.
“This is the kind of gratuitous viciousness that has increasingly defined Mr. Trump’s return to office,” the board wrote.
NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) August 22, 2025
The Rupert Murdoch-owned publication also didn’t spare any criticism for FBI Director Kash Patel, who cryptically tweeted “NO ONE is above the law” minutes before news of the Bolton raid broke.
“The President’s minions… don’t serve as the check on his worst impulses the way grown-ups did in his first term,” the board argued.”
The raid on Bolton’s house comes after Bolton made several appearances over the past week to analyze and critique Trump’s summit with Vladimir Putin last Friday.
I think the Russians feel emboldened when the U.S. backs down from sanctions, like we did on Sunday. Pressure is what brought Russia to the table. To take away this pressure is the free hand that Russia wants. pic.twitter.com/CNYQScJblX
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) August 21, 2025
Bolton appeared on The Daily Beast podcast on Monday, describing Trump as “the world’s worst negotiator” and alleging he struggled to focus on preparing for a 2018 summit with Putin because he was watching a soccer game.
He had previously written in a 2024 preface to his memoir, The Room Where It Happened, that Trump was “unfit” to be president and that if he returned to office, he would seek retribution against his political enemies.
The Journal—to which Bolton is a frequent contributor—also warned about Trump and his allies pursuing political revenge in December 2024.
As it pointed out in Saturday’s op-ed, “We said this was one of the risks of a second Trump term, and it’s turning out to be worse than we imagined.”
The president is suing the Journal for libel, demanding $10 billion for publishing an article about a bawdy birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein that Trump says does not exist.
The paper’s parent company, Dow Jones, has said it has “full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
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