Trump’s Ultimate Revenge Plot Over Bolton Book Betrayal

The Trump administration raided the home of former National Security Adviser John Bolton as part of an investigation into classified information related to a book he wrote about the president’s first term.

But Bolton feared that Trump would target him even before the FBI launched its search, voicing his concerns as recently as this month when he described the Trump White House as a “retribution presidency.”

Four years after Bolton published his tell-all memoir, The Room Where It Happened, FBI agents swooped on his Maryland house on Friday in a stunning pre-dawn raid, flagged with a cryptic tweet by bureau director Kash Patel.

“No one is above the law,” the MAGA loyalist wrote as his agents descended.

The search is part of a national security probe that began after Bolton’s book was published in 2020.

At the time, Trump had tried to quash its publication because it included high level secrets, claiming that Bolton had breached a non-disclosure agreement signed as a condition of his employment.

But a Department of Justice investigation opened in September 2020 was ultimately dropped after the Biden administration came to office in 2021.

Now, in what critics fear is the latest revenge plot against Trump’s enemies, a probe into the possible retention of national security information has been reopened.

Trump claimed on Friday that he didn’t know anything about the raid while Attorney General Pam Bondi simply reposted Patel’s statement on X, declaring: “America’s safety isn’t negotiable. Justice will be pursued. Always.”

But the event shocked Washington’s political establishment on Friday morning, just as Congress was preparing to receive the first of the Epstein files it had subpoenaed from Pam Bondi’s DOJ.

In an interview with NBC on August 10, Bolton described the Trump White House as a “retribution presidency.”

Bolton’s name has also appeared on an “enemies list” that Patel produced before he was tapped by Trump to lead the bureau, alongside dozens of other people the FBI chief called “members of the deep state”.

Asked if he was worried that the administration would come after him in some way, Bolton replied: “I think he’s already come after me and several others in withdrawing the protection that we had”—a reference to Trump removing Bolton’s Secret Service protection this year despite the fact that the former adviser is still facing death threats from Iran.

“So I think, and I said in the new forward to the paperback edition of my book, I think it is a retribution presidency,” he added.

Friday’s raid on Bolton’s home is reminiscent of the search FBI agents conducted at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022.

The then Republican candidate was also accused of mishandling classified documents, and was ultimately indicted on 37 charges—most of which related to the “willful retention” of classified material in violation of the Espionage Act. Those charges were subsequently dropped by Trump-appointed judge Eileen Cannon.

“Such an assault could only take place in broken Third World countries!” Trump said on the day of the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago.

Friday’s search on Bolton’s home comes merely days after tensions between Trump and Bolton escalated over the Russia-Ukraine war.

In the lead-up to last week’s Alaska Summit, Trump lashed out at his national security adviser and the media for their coverage.

“Very unfair media is at work on my meeting with Putin,” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform.

America’s safety isn’t negotiable. Justice will be pursued. Always. https://t.co/Feev4Cxqlj

— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) August 22, 2025

“Constantly quoting fired losers and really dumb people like John Bolton, who just said that, even though the meeting is on American soil, “Putin has already won.” What’s that all about? We are winning on EVERYTHING.”

Bolton was a hawkish National Security Adviser in Trump’s first term who often advocated a more interventionist approach to foreign policy, particularly concerning North Korea and Iran, which tended to clash with Trump’s deal-driven style.

Tensions escalated after he left the administration, when Bolton published his book and became a vocal critic of his former boss.

In response, Trump accused Bolton of a “compilation of lies” and unleashed a barrage of attacks against him.

Earlier this year, Trump revoked Bolton’s security clearance and Secret Service protection, despite Bolton still facing credible threats on his life from Iran.

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