London: President Donald Trump announced the firing of his hawkish national security adviser John Bolton, saying he disagreed “strongly” with his positions, in the latest upheaval for US foreign policy.
“I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning,” Trump said on Twitter, saying he would name a replacement next week.
Bolton, who had been due to give a press conference at the White House less than two hours later, denied being fired and insisted that he had resigned.
The news coming days after Trump caused uproar by revealing he was cancelling secret talks with Afghanistan’s Tali-ban stunned Washington.
Bolton is a controversial figure closely linked to the invasion of Iraq and other foreign policy decisions. He had been seen as one of the main driving forces in the muscular approach to Iran, Venezuela and other trouble spots.
The hardline former ambassador to UN had pushed back hard against Trump’s dramatic, though so far stumbling, attempts to deal with the Taliban and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Bolton was Trump’s third national security advisor and joins a stack of senior officials who have gone during Trumps tenure.
