By Rabia Iclal Turan
WASHINGTON (AA) - US President Donald Trump said he had no prior knowledge of early Friday's FBI raid on the home of his former National Security Adviser John Bolton, learning about it from television reports.
“I don’t know about it. I saw it on television this morning,” Trump told reporters on an impromptu visit to The People’s House museum in Washington.
He dismissed Bolton as “a real lowlife” and “not a smart guy,” accusing him of pushing for “ridiculous bombings in the Middle East.”
“When I hired him, he served a good purpose, because, as you know, he was one of the people that forced (former US President George W.) Bush to do the ridiculous bombings in the Middle East. He wants to always kill people,” he said.
“He's a, not a smart guy, but he could be a very unpatriotic I'm all going to find out. I know nothing about it. I just saw it this morning,” he added.
FBI agents raided Bolton’s residence in Bethesda, Maryland, early Friday as part of a national security investigation into classified documents, according to multiple news reports. The probe was reportedly launched several years ago but shelved under the Biden administration.
Bolton, who left the Trump administration in 2019, later became a sharp critic of the president, most recently criticizing him for meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin and his diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine.