BOLTON DEFENDS TRUMP

John Bolton denies claim that Trump called fallen American soldiers 'losers'

By Emily Jacobs

New York Post
September 8, 2020 


Former national security adviser John Bolton reiterated his skepticism over a report alleging that President Trump disparaged America’s war dead during a 2018 trip to France.

Bolton, who turned from friend to foe of the commander-in-chief after leaving the White House, said during an interview Monday with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum that the allegations were “simply false.”

“According to what that article said, the president made disparaging remarks about soldiers and people buried in the cemetery in connection with the decision for him not to go to the ceremony that was planned that afternoon, and that was simply false,” Bolton told the network.

“I don’t know who told the author that, but that was false.”

“The main issue was whether or not weather conditions permitted the president to go out to the cemetery,” Bolton added.

Bolton was still serving in the Trump administration at the time and was present on the trip in question.

Last Thursday, The Atlantic published a report citing four unidentified sources that accused the president of refusing to go on a scheduled visit to Aisne-Marne American Cemetery to see the graves of fallen US Marines during a 2018 trip.

“Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers,” the commander-in-chief allegedly said.

The White House, Trump and former West Wing staffers have vehemently denied the allegations.

According to Bolton, Trump was advised by then-chief of staff John Kelly that there were “logistical reasons why the trip couldn’t take place and the president assented to the recommendation that he not go.”

In response, Trump “sort of took the facts as they were,” going on to describe the cancellation as a “very straight weather call.”

“I can’t prove the negative that he never said those things. The president has a habit of disparaging people. He ends up denigrating almost everybody that he comes in contact with whose last name is not Trump.”

“I was simply responding to what I thought the main point of the Atlantic article, that at the critical point Saturday morning when the decision was made not to go to Aisne-Marne that he made the disparaging remarks, and he did not,” Bolton added.