Though he’ll get little credit and even less sympathy, there is a case to be made that John Bolton deserves the nation’s thanks for helping save us from at least three Trumpian near-disasters. For a man who held the office of national security adviser for just 17 months, this is no mean feat.
The first averted disaster would have been an agreement with Kim Jong Un, nearly reached early this year in Hanoi, that would have traded solid U.S. economic and diplomatic concessions for slippery promises of North Korean nuclear disarmament. Presidential sycophants and GOP isolationists would also have cheered the deal, along with more than a few liberals.