Welcome to yet another kick-butt thread from Twitchy fave, DataRepublican. This time her subject was John Bolton ...
'Nuff said.
🚨💣 THREAD: John Bolton: The Man Who Never Saw a War He Didn’t Like 💣🚨
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
John Bolton got his start as Reagan's assistant administrator of USAID -- a time when USAID was dramatically re-transformed from Nixon-era "New Directions" third-world assistance to being contingent on… pic.twitter.com/oALm8gquGf
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... on "Democracy & Governance" Cold War goals.
This thread unpacks:
His obsession with staying in wars forever
How his NGO & think-tank gigs kept him flush with hawkish donors
His time in the Trump administration and why his home got searched
As always, patience as I pull this together
This is a humdinger, y'all.
In his most infamous video where he was handed a grenade trophy, he says:
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
"I was in charge of policy and budget at USAID during the Reagan administration, when we undertook a major effort to fix it. And I'm going to show you my farewell present from AID. You can see it’s a hand…
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... grenade. And it says on it: ‘John R. Bolton, Truest Reaganaut, AID 1983. This is a style of government."
Huh.
I assume that to mean that Bolton "invented" D&G. Democracy and Governance emerged as a new USAID category in the 1980s as a way of countering Soviet funding in Latin America, particularly El Salvador -- but did not end after the Cold War. "Democracy assistance" spawned to a… pic.twitter.com/TWMq0TkfuC
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
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... monstrosity.
USSR's fall came from a mix of overspending to counter SDI, over-reliance on oil for hard currency (which had collapsed when Saudi loosened price controls in 1985), and over-reliance on hard currency to import food. But "democracy assistance" nonetheless grew into a huge industry… pic.twitter.com/IL8lLF5nC8
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
Recommended
Bolton didn't talk about USAID in terms of delivering aid or fostering development. He talks about it as a training ground for bureaucratic warfare: "You have to judge what you want, where the opposition to it is going to be, where the support for it will be. You mobilize the… pic.twitter.com/LOZM9wBBNg
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
Post continues: "You mobilize the support and overcome the opposition."
Bolton's actual foreign policy stance is a weird, and IMO, disturbing one. Reagan's interventionism was rooted in a genuine belief that people would reject Communism.
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
Bolton's own interventionism was extremely hardline and cynical. He saw the United States *as* the United… pic.twitter.com/ThzY7BoUPU
In a Project for the New American Century letter, he was a signatory which urged intervention in Iraq without a clear end goal (like democracy).
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
This defines his foreign policy: yes, he was for intervention. No, he wasn't for actual democracy building. pic.twitter.com/tc2b4UcNzt
Not for actual democracy building? SAY IT AIN'T SO!
In fact, he said "I don’t believe in nation building. I think the United States is, in itself, still engaged in building its own nation. And for us, it’s an eternal project. I don’t believe in social engineering." pic.twitter.com/qXvuk44cOo
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
At the same time, he blamed Iraq and Afghanistan on withdrawing too early. He also said that withdrawing from NATO would be catastrophic. pic.twitter.com/9X3MXVi73Y
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
He pushed for the "Libya model" for North Korea which eventually led to the overthrow of Gaddafi and the disastrous civil war which resulted in a third of the population displaced. pic.twitter.com/n5LTZVlH2a
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
Seeing a theme here ... a lot of 'disastrous war.'
What this adds up to is:
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
Bolton's foreign policy position is for the US to get in wars and wage wars forever with no end or goal in sight.
To be honest, he is one of the most disturbing policies I've met. The one-world liberal democratic institution held by Soros and others is at least a *vision.* Bolton continuously advocates for quick intervention without any clear path to "safety."
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
The man just loves to wage…
Indeed, he does.
Bolton is (was?) a senior fellow at American Enterprise Institute (AEI), which has traditionally drafted policy documents for Republican administrations. Like nearly all thinktanks, they're pro-intervention, pushing Trump to intervene more and more. pic.twitter.com/eOTzg55pKG
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
Bolton is (was?) a senior fellow at American Enterprise Institute (AEI), which has traditionally drafted policy documents for Republican administrations. Like nearly all thinktanks, they're pro-intervention, pushing Trump to intervene more and more. pic.twitter.com/eOTzg55pKG
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
Numerous sources report Bolton was the chairman of a NGO called Gatestone Institute from 2013 to 2018. Gatestone Institute is all over the outlets for being virulently anti-Muslim and pro-bellicose-Israel. You can check out their X account @GatestoneInst and decide for yourself… pic.twitter.com/Q3tIiqVp4z
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
Woof, there is so much here.
Bolton gave a speech to the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), where he declared that JINSA has the answers.
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
JINSA advocates for a mutual defense pact between Israel and the US. In short, it advocates that whenever a country attacks Israel, the US must… pic.twitter.com/qV4dwIOwvN
Bolton took a hardline stance against Iran. True to his warmonger stance, he loved it when President Trump struck Iran, but believed that the ceasefire was a mistake. pic.twitter.com/oF9kahGFMM
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
We imagine John really hated Trump working to end wars.
He was quite excited about regime change in Iran.
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
Remember, this is a guy who doesn't believe democracy can be built in the Middle East.
The only constant he supports is whatever gets into the US into more war and keeps the US in war. pic.twitter.com/5IHGoMizrX
My guess is that the Trump administration initially loved him for his hardline U.S. sovereignty stance -- on paper. But fired him when they found out that in practice, it meant waging war everywhere. pic.twitter.com/jCcFpepkMz
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
Dude is war-happy.
Trump said if he'd listened to Bolton, he would've been in "World War Six." 😂
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
And evidently, Bolton's love for war had nothing to do with national security, for his book contained "highly classified information." Which almost certainly ties to today's FBI raid. pic.twitter.com/14eeFYZHnG
World War Six.
In the book, one of the most infamous parts Bolton wrote was about President Donald Trump's campaign to pressure Ukraine on Hunter Biden, calling it a "drug deal." Allegedly, Trump wanted Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden's dealings and made US assistance contingent on that.… pic.twitter.com/I9Mw9DVs01
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
Bolton's tenure was defined by constant clashes, and his grievance is obvious: he didn't get to unleash the wars he wanted. He retaliated by spilling classified national security secrets for profit.
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025
Few officials in modern times have pushed harder for more death abroad; Bolton… pic.twitter.com/SWcjrU9Kb7
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... may go down as one of the deadliest men never to have his finger on the trigger.We will all be safer for it when he is in jail. And ironically, that's exactly what Bolton would have advocated.
Thread end.
Wowza.
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