Trump is in a ‘vulnerable position’ in Iran, former White House aide warns

 Ambassador John Bolton spoke to Metro about the ongoing war in Iran (Picture: The Washington Post)

A former senior aide to Donald Trump has told Metro that the President is in a ‘vulnerable position’ with his war in Iran – and doesn’t know how to get out of it.

Since the US launched joint strikes in Iran with Israel more than two weeks ago, the oil industry has been thrown into chaos, neighbouring countries have been struck with missiles, and 13 US soldiers have been killed.

At the time, Trump said his reasons for the strikes on February 28 were he believed Iran was going to attack the US first – something that his own officials have since told Congress that there was no intelligence suggesting this.

Trump also said he hoped to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, something Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has also said, adding: ‘We didn’t start this war… but under President Trump, we’re finishing it.’

When the conflict began, only 41% of Americans approved of the intervention – far lower than support for any other US conflict in decades.

Now, John Robert Bolton, Trump’s former national security advisor from 2018 to 2019, told Metro that there is a strong case for regime change in Iran, but Trump hasn’t made this clear to the American public – something which could come back to haunt him.

He said: ‘You’ve always got to be prudent, but when a country is seeking weapons of mass destruction—chemical, biological, or nuclear—and engaging in international terrorism while repressing its own people, it is a problem,’ he warned.

‘If you wait too long to deal with it, as we did with North Korea, it becomes a bigger problem. It goes to what Churchill said regarding appeasement: “This just confirms the unteachability of mankind.”

‘You go through this over and over again; you don’t strike when it’s easy, you wait until it’s too late, and then you pay the price.’

Having served under Trump for two years in his first administration, former US ambassador to the United Nations Bolton said the President needed to convince America why going after Iran would be to their benefit – but so far, he hasn’t.

‘Trump didn’t make it clear to the public, to Congress, or to the Allies. It’s not too late, but it’s getting close,’ he said.

Ambassador Bolton told Metro that while Iran was not considered an ‘imminent threat’, its nuclear programme was getting ‘too close for comfort’.

‘People say this is a “war of choice.” It is. It’s a preventive war to prevent the need to do something else in much more dangerous circumstances,’ he explained.

Referring to the US’ Iraq War in 2003, he added: ‘By the late 1990s, Saddam didn’t have centrifuges spinning, but he had kept together approximately 3,000 scientists and technicians who could rebuild the program.

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‘That was the point: they have the knowledge. Iran may not have centrifuges spinning today, but they know how to put them back together.’

When a country is ‘seeking weapons of mass destruction and engaging in international terrorism while suppressing its own people’, it’s a problem, he added.

‘The lesson to us is: don’t be so patient. If a proliferator has enough patience and gets nuclear weapons, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to take its program out without grave risk,’ Bolton said.

‘If the US had attacked Iran 20 years ago, it would have spared the region ‘a lot of pain and suffering’.