Donald Trump will turn his impeachment trial into ‘stab in the back’ narrative and use it to fire up his fundraising machine, predicts aide-turned-enemy John Bolton
- ‘His great fundraising Wurlitzer will work overtime’
- Bolton writes in a new op-ed that Trump was trying to ‘steal’ the election with frivolous ‘if not fraudulent’ litigation
- But he warns proceedings could backfire and damage the country
- Trump will claim it is unconstitutional and fight in court
- House managers delivered article charging Trump with ‘incitement of insurrection’
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton says the second impeachment of President Trump won’t manage to hold the former president accountable and will instead fire up his fundraising machine while energizing his supporters in conservative media.
Bolton, Trump’s former national security advisor who penned a blistering tell-all but did not participate in the first impeachment, argues that impeachment will not bring ‘closure’ to the Trump era, and may embolden him.
‘His great fundraising Wurlitzer will work overtime, as will his followers’ echo chamber, while the litigation plods on long after the Senate’s work is over,’ wrote Bolton, a Republican and former UN ambassador who was a frequent Fox News contributor before joining the White House.
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton is arguing that a Senate impeachment trial won’t succeed in holding Donald Trump accountable. ‘His great fundraising Wurlitzer will work overtime, as will his followers’ echo chamber,’ Bolton writes in an op-ed
After raising millions off the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement while fighting to overturn the election, Trump has begun to position himself around impeachment: beginning to hire a legal team and telling GOP senators through emissaries who will serve as jurors that he will remain a force in GOP politics.
Bolton, who takes pains to note he is not saying Trump is innocent, says the effort has partisan overtones and may lack a constitutional basis since Trump is a former president rather than a sitting one.
‘Nor would a Senate conviction bring closure to the Trump era; instead, it would simply add fuel for the Wurlitzer and the “stab-in-the-back” narrative Trump is already crafting,’ he writes in the National Review.
‘Perversely, conviction would validate Trump’s basic complaints. On balance, therefore, the country generally and the Republican Party particularly would be better off without the Sturm und Drang that surely lies ahead.’
‘If I were cynical, I would say that Democrats believe they benefit by keeping Trump center stage, rather than Republicans. Congressional Democrats benefit from Republican fratricide and Trump’s toxicity (as demonstrated in the January 5 Georgia Senate runoff results), and avoid attention to their own internal strife and leftist policies,’ he writes.
Former President Trump will be able to raise moeny and gain attention as he battles impeachment and demonstrates continued influence, Bolton writes
Bolton, who penned a tell-all about his time in the White House, says it may not be constitutional to impeach a former president
Democratic House impeachment managers stand before entering the Senate Chamber as they deliver to the Senate the article of impeachment alleging incitement of insurrection against former President Donald Trump, in Washington, Monday, Jan. 25, 2021
House Democrats pushed through the impeachment days after the MAGA riot in the Capitol. It was joined by 10 House Republicans. Some GOP senators have said Trump committed impeachable offenses, but lawmakers appear to be dividing along mostly partisan lines, with only a handful of Republicans considered likely to vote with Democrats to convict.
‘I am not saying Trump is innocent. Or that he has “suffered enough.” Or that we should “turn the page,”‘ writes Bolton,’ whose book ‘The Room Where it Happened’ infuriated Trump and brought a lawsuit seeking to top publication.
”I have nothing good to say about Donald Trump’s meretricious argument that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election; or Trump’s trying to steal it for himself by frivolous if not fraudulent litigation and administrative proceedings and intimidating elected officials at all government levels; or his inciting violence on January 6 to preclude Congress from fulfilling its duty to certify the Electoral College vote; or Trump’s sundry efforts to convert the Justice Department into his personal law firm (including trying to suppress my recent book, on the pretext that it contained classified information, which it did not),’ he write.