'Quite difficult': Former top Trump aide explains why the president fails at negotiations
U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin following their meeting to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S., August 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Former National Security Adviser, John Bolton told the Daily Beast Podcast that Russian leader Vladimir Putin walked into the Friday summit in Alaska with the upper hand.
Bolton spoke from the experience of working as President Donald Trump’s advisor from his first term and said Trump typically tosses the notes his researchers give him and mostly just wings it.
“Typically, he has not read the briefing materials that are prepared, really, by the National Security Council staff with inputs from all of the affected departments and agencies,” Bolton, told podcast host Joanna Coles. “… It’s pretty standard practice across almost all presidencies in the modern time, and they were laboriously put together, and I’m quite confident he read little or none of them in most cases.”
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Bolton said during Trump’s first term he and staff “tried to arrange briefings … before we departed from Washington, but sometimes that was quite difficult.” Bolton recalled one preparation aboard Air Force One while flying from Scotland to Finland in July 2018.
“I briefed him on strategic arms issues and negotiations with Russia while we were flying on Air Force One. He was in his cabin watching a FIFA soccer match, so I had to compete for attention with that,” Bolton told the host.
Because of that, Bolton said Putin was “automatically in better shape than Trump about what can be very complicated issues,” particularly with the Russian leader’s espionage background and his experience from earlier meetings with Trump.
“But watching the press conference afterward, I came away with a pretty firm impression that Putin felt he had had a very successful meeting and Trump came away feeling maybe it had not been so successful,” Bolton said.
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When hosts asked Bolton what differences Bolton sees between “first-term” Trump and now, Bolton said that the 79-year-old president occasionally mixes up names. But he urged hosts not to “read too much into it.”
Hear the Daily Beast podcast at this link.
