NEW YORK • Just like the Russian President, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson played Mr Donald Trump “like a fiddle”, said Mr John Bolton, who suggested the British leader could use that ability to his advantage.
The US President’s former national security adviser told Channel 4 News he was not in his post long enough to witness specific incidents, but noted that there was a sea-change in the US-UK relationship after Mr Johnson replaced Mrs Theresa May as premier last July. Mr Trump and Mrs May had a famously awkward relationship.
“The reason this is positive for Britain is that Mr Trump can’t distinguish between his personal relationships with a counterpart leader, and the actual state of the national relationships between two countries,” he said in an interview aired on Thursday.
Mr Bolton, who left Mr Trump’s administration last September, then echoed the phrase he has used to describe the relationship between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mr Trump. “I’ve known Boris before he was prime minister,” Mr Bolton said. “I think he’s got a good sense of humour, and I had the sense that behind those twinkling eyes, he was playing Mr Trump like a fiddle, too.”
Mr Trump has described allegations in Mr Bolton’s new book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, as “lies”, while his administration tried – and failed – to prevent its publication.
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