“I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning,” he wrote.
Trump then thanked Bolton “very much for his service” and announced he would be naming a new National Security Adviser later in the week.
Meanwhile, several minutes later Bolton said that he offered his resignation on Monday.
Taliban Talks ‘Dead’
On Monday, Trump said talks with the Taliban were “dead” after secret Camp David talks were scuppered.Over the weekend, the president canceled the secret meeting, which was set to host Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Taliban leaders.
“They thought that they had to kill people to put themselves in a little better negotiating position,” Trump told reporters, calling the attack “a big mistake.”
He added: “You can’t do that. You can’t do that with me.”
Trump mentioned that an American soldier from Puerto Rico, U.S. Army Sergeant 1st Class Elis A. Barreto Ortiz, died, adding that the United States hit the Taliban “hard” over the past four days.
In last week’s incident, the terrorist group launched a suicide attack that killed Ortiz and more than 10 others in Kabul on Sept. 5.
Trump made Monday’s remarks to reporters as he departed the White House to board Marine One for a rally in North Carolina.
“I took my own advice. I liked the idea of meeting. I’ve met with a lot of bad people and a lot of good people over the course of the last three years. I think that meeting is a great thing,” Trump also said. “Otherwise, wars would never end.”
“We had a meeting scheduled. It was my idea, and it was my idea to terminate it,” Trump said. “I didn’t discuss it with anybody else. When I heard very simply that they killed one of our soldiers and 12 other innocent people, I said there’s no way I’m meeting,” Trump added, calling it a “mistake.”
