RUSH: Well, just moments ago, folks, right here before the big program begins, the president tweets out that he no longer needs the services of John Bolton. John Bolton, the national security adviser. So, obviously Bolton has been fired. (paraphrasing) “I told Bolton I no longer need his services. I disagreed with many of the suggestions that he has made.”

So, we’ll have to wait and find out what this was all about. Once again, relying on the Drive-By Media for details is gonna be problematic. But we’ll eventually get to the bottom and find out what this is all about. You know, I’m gonna take a flier. I’m gonna take a wild guess. And it might have something to do with somebody inviting the Taliban to Camp David. Whoever did that needs to have their head examined.

Now, I can’t believe that Bolton would be the guy responsible for that. Bolton is the guy that has no patience — well, wrong term. He doesn’t suffer fools, and he’s not somebody that likes to accommodate the enemy. Whoever it was that came up with the idea of having these Taliban monsters up at Camp David, thank goodness that didn’t happen.

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RUSH: Bolton statements and Trump’s statements are at variance. (That means they’re different, for those of you in Rio Linda.) Bolton is saying that he offered to resign last night but the president said, “No, no, no, no. Let’s talk about it tomorrow.” The president is saying he asked for Bolton’s resignation; it was not Bolton’s idea. So now people are trying to speculate, “What is this about?” He’s the national security adviser, and there are any number of things it could be and there’s no way of knowing. We just have to wait. It will come out at some point.

One of the things being bandied about was that, you know, Trump was offering to meet with the president of Iran. Bolton doesn’t believe in that. He doesn’t believe in meeting with Kim Jong-un. He doesn’t believe in giving any of these reprobate world leaders the respect of meeting with the president of the United States. He doesn’t agree with them being given that stage. He thinks that they haven’t earned it, that they’re thug criminals — and Trump likes meeting with these guys.

Trump loves meeting with these people because he’s got dreams of ending disagreements with these people, bringing peace and tranquility to the humanity of earth. Bolton doesn’t see eye-to-eye with any of that. It could also be about troop withdrawals in Afghanistan. You know, there are factions in the White House that want to get us out of there. It’s been announced that we’re getting out of there. We’ve been over there for I don’t know how many years, and some people say we don’t even know why we are still there.

Bolton would not want to pull out of Afghanistan. Bolton would not want to withdraw from any presence in places like Syria. So it could well be that this is just the culmination of systemic policy differences that have led to this. As I say, we will be rewarded if for patience. We’ll find out what this is all about, because there are people here with vested interests, their reputations and so forth. Bolton has a reputation as a hardliner, doesn’t take any guff, is not one of these touchy-feely, politically correct guys.

“Let’s try to make ’em like us. Let’s find out why they don’t like us and change.” That’s not Bolton. He don’t care that they don’t like us. We just gotta beat ’em. We gotta pummel ’em. And, to a certain extent, Trump is that way as well. But something went awry, and the Drive-By Media is all thrilled about it because it represents more discord in the Trump White House, more disorganization, more evidence that Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing. Now, the Drive-By Media have hated John Bolton ever since he was a U.N. ambassador. They hate him. They despise the guy. Now they’re gonna love him if they can position him as the good guy.

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RUSH: Well, now, there you have it. CNN is saying that Bolton was fired in part because Trump was upset that John Bolton was upset that the Taliban had been invited to Camp David. It makes perfect sense that Bolton would be upset by that. A lot of people were kind of confused. “What the heck? The Taliban being invited to Camp David?” But then again, Clinton had Yasser Arafat and the PLO and those locos there. It’s not as though world’s reprobates have not been to Camp David. But Bolton would not at all be in favor of that.

So it could be that. It could be Afghanistan withdrawal, Syria. Bolton is insisting that he resigned, that Trump didn’t fire him, and he’s trying to get that word out. He actually texted Brian Kilmeade, Bolton did, at the Fox News Channel. Kilmeade was on Fox a little after noon and got a text from Bolton. “Hey! Hey! I quit. I wasn’t fired,” and so forth. So this is going back and forth.

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RUSH: Lindsey Graham on Capitol Hill today talking about John Bolton leaving, resigning, being fired, whatever.

GRAHAM: I think the view that there’s some public discussions about Bolton being on the other side of meeting with the – the Taliban probably was a bridge too far. I don’t know what happened there. But the bottom line is I appreciate what John has done for the country for a long period of time. And the President will now get a chance to pick a National Security Adviser he has more confidence in.

RUSH: Okay. So this is what I – the first thing out my mouth was that somebody, Bolton would not have been happy with the Taliban being invited to Camp David. When I saw that, it was over a weekend or a day I wasn’t here when I first saw it, “Who did this?” And then it was canceled, and I had a great sigh of relief.

Lindsey Graham is saying that this would have been a bridge too far for Bolton. But it doesn’t address the fact that Trump claims he fired Bolton. Now, Bolton: No, no, no, he didn’t fire me. I resigned. We’ll have to wait and see. I’m just gonna tell you what’s gonna happen now. You gotta trust me on something.

The Drive-By Media, the Democrat Party has hated John Bolton for his entire career in the Foreign Service. He’s been a United Nations ambassador. He’s been accused of being rude to employees. He has been accused of being unfeeling and insensitive toward women. He’s been accused of being no nonsense. He’s been accused of being a horrible diplomat, that he tells people straight out right between the eyes. They have never had any respect for John Bolton. They have never liked John Bolton. He’s always been an extension of whatever Republican president they hated.

But now, you watch. Any second now John Bolton’s gonna become the smartest foreign policy strategist in our country. He’s gonna become the wisest foreign policy adviser Trump has ever had. The Drive-Bys, despite a lifetime of disrespect and hatred for this guy, the Drive-Bys are gonna start wringing their hands and lamenting that he was the last adult in the room, and that we’re all in peril now. John Bolton was the only guy saving us from destruction, the only guy saving us from our enemies beating us, the only guy with any sanity in the room and now he’s gone.

This is how they’re gonna portray him. I predict that he’s already getting book offers, he’s already getting interview offers. The left is gonna offer him whatever they can to get him to speak out against Trump. They can’t help themselves! He’s gonna become the new Russian collusion story. John Bolton is gonna become the next Robert Mueller. Mark my words.

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RUSH: Now, grab sound bites 33, 34. Mike Pompeo, secretary of state, at the White House today had a little meet-and-greet with reporters along with Steve Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, and one of the questions a reporter asked Pompeo: “Did John Bolton get fired or did he quit, and did he leave the White House because he disagreed with you in particular over talks with the Taliban?”

POMPEO: I’ll leave to the president to talk about the reasons he made decisions, but I would say this. The president’s entitled to the staff that he wants at any moment. This is a staff person that works directly with the president of the United States and he should have people he trusts and values, and whose efforts and judgments benefit him in delivering American foreign policy. It’s what, as cabinet member, Secretary Mnuchin and I try and do each and every day — and when the president makes a decision like this, he’s well within his rights to do so.

RUSH: So next question, “Secretary Pompeo, were you two,” meaning him and Mnuchin, “blindsided by what happened today that Bolton is no longer with the administration? Was it news to you today?”

POMPEO: I’m never surprised.

PRESS GAGGLE: (laughter)

REPORTER: Well, let me ask you —

POMPEO: (chuckles) And I don’t mean that on just this issue. And I think Secretary Mnuchin would say the same thing. We work very closely with the president of the United States. I think we have a pretty good understanding of how he’s thinking about things — I think you’d agree, Steven — at nearly all times. So, you know, our mission is not to talk about the inner workings and palace intrigue that I know you are so curious about, but rather to talk about the things that matter to American foreign policy.

RUSH: So we really don’t know any more now than we did other than Bolton is gone. The media’s gone fall in love with him. After a lifetime of hating him, he’s gonna become the most reasonable foreign policy advisor any president’s ever had. You wait. Book offers, TV show offers, and it will be interesting to see how Bolton reacts to that, because Bolton knows who the media is, and he knows what they’re dealing with.

Now, there’s some things going by the wayside here that I need to grab back.