Despite disavowals from Donald Trump that he was not aware of a planned raid on the home of John Bolton, White House insiders claim he had been obsessed with his former national security adviser for the past few weeks.


Questioned about the raid afterward, the president told reporters he was out of the loop and knew nothing about it, however, in interviews with the Washington Post, insiders said he not only was focusing on Bolton but that he dropped hints in the days before the raid.


As the Post’s Natalie Allison and Michael Birnbaum wrote, “People close to Trump have privately noted, however, that the president was bothered by Bolton’s recent deprecation of his attempts at peacemaking. And both Trump and some of his top appointees have talked openly about using the criminal justice system against his perceived enemies.”


The precipitating event appears to be Bolton’s very public rebuke of the Putin summit with the president watching TV news to see how his negotiations were being portrayed. He was particularly stung by Bolton’s criticism in multiple TV appearances, including his comment that the Russian strongman “...clearly won.”


The Post report notes, “Until Aug. 13, Bolton had not been a target of Trump’s social media attacks for seven months — since before Trump’s inauguration in January. That changed just over a week ago, when Trump became angry at a quote from Bolton and fired off a post on Truth Social expressing his frustration.”


According to the Post, “The president probably watched some of those appearances,” with one adviser admitting, “He lives for this stuff, so he’s watching it all day long.”


“The Justice Department’s decision to launch a probe into Bolton comes as top officials there have faced pressure from Trump’s base to take more aggressive action against so-called deep-state corruption,” the Post is reporting.


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