Lawrence Wilkerson, a former United States Army colonel and chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, made clear, at the beginning of a new The Real News interview, his concern about President Donald Trump appointing John Bolton as the president’s national security advisor. “I would agree that John Bolton is one of the most dangerous Americans — and I use that term loosely in regard to John because of his affiliation so closely with Israel — that I have ever met in all my 40, 50 years of service,” declared Wilkerson to host Sharmini Peries. Indeed, Wilkerson states in the interview that Bolton “is the very last person on the face of this Earth” Trump should have chosen for the position.
Additionally, Wilkerson, who is a professor at the College of William & Mary, says he thinks that, by appointing Bolton to the national security advisor position, Trump is seeking “to send a signal that he is seeking unanimity within his cabinet, and by unanimity I mean people who will ask him what he wants to do and then go do it for him without any dissent, without any questioning, without any additional advice, if you will.”
Supposing Wilkerson were president, he explains in the interview that he would seek to appoint as national security advisor someone like Council of Foreign Relations President Richard Haass with whom Wilkerson would disagree on issues while gaining much from substantive discussions. In contrast, Wilkerson describes Trump as seeking “lock-step people on his team.”
Watch Wilkerson’s complete interview here:
Wilkerson is a Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity Academic Board member.
