John Bolton says he offered to resign as national security adviser after US president Donald Trump informed him that his services were no longer needed. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/ Getty Images
The historical roll call of White House national security adviser (NSA) is storied and when John Bolton was appointed by Donald Trump in the turbulent weeks of 2018, he conceded on a Fox News interview that the honour came so abruptly that it “hasn’t sunk in”.
Democrats quickly denounced the appointment, chiefly on the grounds that Bolton, whose political life began as an intern for Richard Nixon’s vice-president Spiro Agnew, had been a strenuous advocate for the weapons-of-mass-destruction myth that facilitated the 2003 Iraq War.
Bolton was Trump’s third NSA, replacing Lieut Gen HR McMaster, who stepped down. Before that, Lieut Gen Mike Flynn had lasted just 24 days in the role.
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