Is the War Hawk Bolton on the Way Out?
You never know what is going to happen in Trump World until it is a fait acompli, but this is a good sign.
The Washington Post reports:
President Trump is questioning his administration's aggressive strategy in Venezuela following the failure of a U.S.-backed effort to oust President Nicolás Maduro, complaining he was misled about how easy it would be to replace the socialist strongman with a young opposition figure, according to administration officials and White House advisers.
The president's dissatisfaction has crystallized around national security adviser John Bolton and what Trump has groused is an interventionist stance at odds with his view that the United States should stay out of foreign quagmires.
Trump has said in recent days that Bolton wants to get him "into a war" — a comment that he has made in jest in the past but that now betrays his more serious concerns, one senior administration official said.
The administration's policy is officially unchanged in the wake of a fizzled power play last week by U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó. But U.S. officials have since been more cautious in their predictions of Maduro's swift exit, while reassessing what one official described as the likelihood of a diplomatic "long haul."
But, but. From the same report:
Despite Trump's grumbling that Bolton had gotten him out on a limb on Venezuela, Bolton's job is safe, two senior administration officials said, and Trump has told his national security adviser to keep focusing on Venezuela...
"America stands with the GREAT PEOPLE of Venezuela for however long it takes!" Trump tweeted Wednesday as he returned from a campaign rally in Florida, where some Venezuelans fleeing Maduro have settled