U.S. President Donald Trump has parted ways with his national security adviser, John Bolton.
Both Trump and Bolton took to Twitter on Tuesday to offer different accounts on exactly how the departure took place.
Trump wrote that he told Bolton on Monday his services were no longer needed at the White House.
“I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the administration,” Trump said.
Trump added that he would appoint a new national security adviser in the coming week.
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However, Bolton posted on Twitter minutes after Trump, claiming that he “offered to resign” on Monday night but the president said they would talk about it the next day.
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Just an hour before Trump’s tweet, the White House press office announced that Bolton would join Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a briefing.
Bolton was Trump’s third national security adviser and began the job in April 2018 after the departure of U.S. army Gen. H.R. McMaster.
Inside the administration, Bolton had advocated caution on the president’s whirlwind rapprochement with North Korea and given advice against Trump’s decision last year to pull U.S. troops out of Syria.
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He masterminded a quiet campaign inside the administration and with allies abroad to convince Trump to keep U.S. forces in Syria to counter the remnants of the Islamic State group and Iranian influence in the region.
Trump would sometimes chide Bolton about his hawkish ways in meetings, introducing him to visiting foreign leaders by saying, “You all know the great John Bolton. He’ll bomb you. He’ll take out your whole country.”
Officials and a source close to Trump told Reuters the president had grown weary of his hawkish tendencies and the bureaucratic infighting that he got involved with.
Tensions had also been rising between Bolton and Pompeo over influence in the president’s orbit and how to manage the president’s desire to negotiate with some of the world’s most unsavory actors.
Pompeo commented on Bolton’s departure at a White House press briefing saying that Trump is “entitled to the staff that he wants,” and admitted he has disagreed with Bolton “many times.”
Following news of Bolton’s dismissal, several politicians chimed in with reactions.
Senator Bernie Sanders, who is vying for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, wrote on Twitter:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the news is a “symbol of the disarray that has unnerved our allies since day one of the Trump Administration.”
Asked who would now speak to U.S. allies from the White House, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said:
“Probably Trump.”
— With files from the Associated Press, Reuters
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