*WASHINGTON*: US President Donald Trump shook up his foreign policy teamagain on Thursday, replacing HR McMaster as national security adviser withJohn Bolton, a hawk who has advocated using military force against NorthKorea and Iran.
The move, announced in a tweet and a White House statement, came littlemore than a week after Trump fired Rex Tillerson as secretary of state andnominated Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo to replace him.
The shake-up shows Trump, in office for 14 months, surrounding himself withadvisers more likely to agree with his views and taking his foreign policyin a more hawkish direction.
What it means for a prospective summit meeting between Trump and NorthKorean leader Kim Jong Un is unclear. The meeting is supposed to happen bythe end of May, but an exact time and place have yet to be settled on.
Bolton’s appointment could doom the already endangered Iran nuclear deal.It could also lead to friction with Trump on how tough to be on Russia,with the president still holding out hope for improved ties with RussianPresident Vladimir Putin.
The news of Bolton’s appointment followed a meeting he had with Trump inthe Oval Office. Even Bolton was caught by surprise. “I didn’t reallyexpect an announcement this afternoon, but it’s obviously a great honour,”he told *Fox News* after the announcement. “I’m still getting used to it.”
Bolton, 69, is a *Fox News* analyst who contemplated a run for theRepublican presidential nomination in 2016. He is a familiar figure inWashington, with a walrus-like moustache and hard-charging views on manyglobal challenges.
Some members of Congress immediately questioned his selection for thecritical position in the White House.
“This is not a wise choice. Bolton does not have the temperament orjudgment to be an effective national security adviser,” Democratic SenatorJack Reed said in a statement.
Bolton tweeted on January 11 that time was running out on stopping NorthKorea’s nuclear weapons program. He said: “We’ve got to look at the veryunattractive choice of using military force to deny them that capability.”
At a time when Trump has threatened to withdraw the United States from the2015 Iran nuclear deal, unless Europe agrees to change it, Bolton hastweeted that the deal “needs to be abrogated.”
He has also called for “effective countermeasures to the cyber war thatRussia is engaging.”
*‘STRONG SIGNAL’*
Elliott Abrams, a senior foreign policy aide to former Republican PresidentGeorge W Bush, praised Trump’s choice, saying Bolton “proved when we wereboth in the Bush administration that he is an excellent and forcefulbureaucrat”.
Whether Bolton, who was US ambassador to the United Nations for Bush, willbe able to swallow his own views has been debated by foreign policy expertssince he appeared on Trump’s radar. His hiring does not require US Senateconfirmation.
Bolton said in the *Fox News*interview that his past statements on variousissues were behind him and he would be an honest broker ensuring thepresident sees all the options available to him.
“The important thing is what the president says and the advice I give him,”he said.
Still, analysts said Bolton’s views would be influential.
“Bolton has long been an advocate for pre-emptive military action againstNorth Korea, and his appointment as National Security Adviser is a strongsignal that President Trump remains open to these options,” said AbrahamDenmark, deputy assistant secretary of defence for East Asia under formerPresident Barack Obama.
“We should also expect an even more confrontational approach to China – atrade war may just be the beginning of a broader geopolitical competition,”he said.
Bonnie Glaser, Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and InternationalStudies think tank in Washington, said: “Bolton has long supported regimechange in North Korea and closer ties with Taiwan. Fasten your seatbelts.”
As the State Department’s top arms control official under Bush, Bolton wasa leading advocate of the 2003 invasion of Iraq – which was later found tohave been based on bogus and exaggerated intelligence about PresidentSaddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction and ties to terrorism. -Agencies