I can't even read this. I came close to just quitting the internet when this was announced. Bolton is going to whisper (yell at an unreasonable volume) in Trump's ear that Bush was too much of a pussy to do anything about Iran and NK. This man is dangerous. Nuclear dangerous. This makes it all the more urgent for Congress to pass a law barring a nuclear first use. They won't because that's against 70 years of US policy, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't.
Well, and he legit argued we should attack North Korea in the WSJ like last month. As Leonhardt put it, "President Trump is replacing advisers who tried to moderate him with those who play to his worst impulses."
I think Leonhardt is being too polite. Trump is replacing his entire staff with Fox News talking heads. It's not any more complicated than that. Consider, e.g., that Bolton is a mega-hawk, possibly the biggest from Bush II admin. Trump campaigned on his opposition to the Iraq war from day 1 (it doesn't matter that it was a lie; it was his platform nonetheless). Bolton thinks that the problem with the Iraq war is that Bush stopped at only 1/3 of the axis of evil. They don't se eye to eye on this or any other foreign policy decision, but Bolton is a tough guy who is regularly featured on Hannity or whatever other fake news program Trump watches, so he says, "That's the guy I want."