FBI agents walk outside the home of the former White House national security adviser John Bolton as it is searched by FBI, in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S., August 22, 2025. REUTERS/Tasos Katopodis

On Friday, August 22, cable news outlets CNN and MSNBC were dominated by images of FBI agents searching the Bethesda, Maryland home of former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who served in the first Trump Administration but is now openly critical of President Donald Trump.

Right-wing media outlets gave the search plenty of coverage as well. In an article published on August 25, Salon's Sophia Tesfaye stresses that even some of Trump's frequent defenders on the right are troubled by the Bolton search and believe the Trump Administration is crossing dangerous lines.

Some right-wing media pundits, Tesfaye observes, have no sympathy for Bolton.

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Fox star Laura Ingraham commented, "John Bolton is learning the hard way after cheering on lawfare against President Trump."

Similarly, Fox News' Greg Gutfeld commented, "Some say it's retribution. I say, who cares? You know, don't lecture me on timing of lawfare. Don't lecture me on politically-motivated investigations. You guys invented this stuff."

But the Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board had a scathing response to the Bolton search, warning, "This is the kind of gratuitous viciousness that has increasingly defined Mr. Trump's return to office. The real offender here is a president who seems to think he can use the powers of his office to run vendettas. 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 National Review's Andrew McCarthy, during a Fox News appearance, argued, "A big part of lawfare is to harass people with investigations. So, even if there are never any charges, there's going to be — there's already been a search warrant, there's obviously a criminal investigation that's underway. There will probably be a grand jury component of it, and even if there is no charges, this will be a very big deal for Bolton personally in the coming months and maybe even years."

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The conservative Washington Examiner's Tom Rogan wrote, "The Trump Administration has shown a rampant interest in aggressively pursuing its political opponents since Trump reentered office. The fear, or should-be-fear, is that Trump is weaponizing the DOJ against his political enemies."

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Sophia Tesfaye's full article for Salon is available at this link.