Bolton: Trump had 'no idea what the strategic issues were' in Ukraine

Former national security adviser John Bolton on Sunday said former President Donald Trump had "no idea what the strategic issues were" in Ukraine while he was commander in chief, and alleged the former president has "an affinity for strongmen leaders" like Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Bolton told Mark McKinnon on Showtime's "The Circus" that the former president seemed to admire leaders like Putin.

"He has some kind of an affinity for strong men leaders around the world and I think that's what's at stake here," Bolton said. "It's not based on any coherent policy, it's based on the inner recesses of Donald Trump's imagination."

Bolton, who was fired by Trump in 2019, was speaking about Trump's dealings and strategies with Ukraine and Russia while he was president, in light of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The former national security adviser, who previously said Putin was waiting for Trump to pull out of the security alliance NATO if the Republican won reelection, also said his former boss lacked a strategy in Ukraine, which was fighting a Russian-backed separatist revolt for years before the 2022 invasion.

Instead, Trump was focused on digging up dirt on President Biden's son, Hunter, as well as on a Democratic National Convention (DNC) server purported to be used against him in the 2016 election, Bolton said.

"Trump had no idea what the strategic issues were with respect to Ukraine. We tried to talk to him about it but all he cared about was trying to find that DNC server Hillary Clinton used in 2016 and he wanted to know where Hunter Biden was getting his income from somewhere inside Ukraine," Bolton said.

"And that focus - which is very typical of Trump - is, 'What is my political stake here,' not the geopolitical threats to Europe," Bolton added.

Trump was later impeached, mostly along party lines, for threatening to withhold aid from Ukraine unless the country gave him information on Hunter Biden.

During the Russian invasion in Ukraine, Trump has still voiced his opinion and sparked debate and controversy. After Putin sent military units into the nation ahead of the large-scale invasion, Trump called the Russian leader "smart" and "pretty savvy," which drew widespread condemnation.

The former president later changed tune and said the Russian invasion amounted to a "holocaust."

Bolton said that while he was in office, Trump undermined Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and "didn't care much about him," even as advisers tried to keep national security in check.

"I grated away a lot of my teeth and had a lot of bites in my tongue," he said.