Bolton says second Trump term could bring ‘constitutional crisis’

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton warned voters on Tuesday that a second term in the White House for former President Donald Trump could trigger a constitutional crisis in the country.

Bolton said his issue with a possible second term, should his former boss win reelection in 2024, is that the second Trump presidency could bring down major United States institutions by driving major leaders to resign.

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“One of the greatest dangers that a second Trump term brings would be a constitutional crisis,” Bolton told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “Who is he going to nominate to be attorney general, and [what happens] when the attorney general gives an order from Trump, they say no, and they resign, and the entire Department of Justice begins to resign? What happens when he gives illegal orders to the career military, and they start to resign?”

Bolton added, “I think that’s what we’re going to have, not so much the threat of Trump asserting his authority as the breaking down of institutions.”

(Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

The former adviser said he still has faith that the institutions would prevail should Trump be reelected, but he admitted he was concerned about the danger. Trump is the front-runner for the GOP nomination, but the start of the nominating calendar is still months away, and he faces a crowded field of challengers.

“The question is, just because Trump tries to do it, do you think the institutions simply dissolve? I don’t think that happens,” Bolton said. “I think as long as you still have an independent judiciary, a lot of people may run up a lot of legal fees, but it will result in the country turning against Trump.”

Bolton has been critical of the former president since the end of his time as national security adviser in 2019, even claiming he believed Trump mishandled classified documents during his presidency. Bolton claimed to have witnessed the alleged mishandling personally during his tenure with the administration. Trump is currently facing 37 charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents, among other legal cases.

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“I think he was kind of a collector of things that he thought were of interest to him for some reason or another ― clippings, mementos, classified documents,” Bolton said in June. “And it was very disturbing. It became the practice to just get as many back in cases as we could, obviously we failed in many cases.”

Trump’s main challengers for the nomination are set to face each other Wednesday night in the second GOP debate. Trump will not partake in the debate. He chose to visit autoworkers who are striking in Michigan instead.