Name: John Bolton wanted war with Iran — but not like this | Today, Explained
Uploaded: 2026-03-28T16:40:47.000Z
Duration: 27 min 5 s
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So for 20 years there's basically been one guy who was always known as the Iran war guy in Republican politics.

For years, even decades, Ambassador John Bolton has argued that America needs to push for regime change in Iran and take an active military role in making it happen.

But now that Trump is doing just that, Ambassador Bolton says he's actually going about it all wrong and making a big mistake.

So how did Trump lose the Republican Party's biggest Iran war hawk?

Ambassador Bolton, thank you so much for joining us.

Ambassador, I would love for you to just run through your credentials, uh, uh, for a second.

Uh, we're going to be talking about, obviously, the growing war in Iran, but

I wanted for you to, uh, give our audience just a sense of how closely you've been tied to this for a while.

Well, I've, uh, had the privilege to serve in a number of, uh, senior U.S.

government officials, going back to the Reagan and first Bush administration, second Bush administration.

I was Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.

And, uh, I served in the first Trump term as, uh, National Security Advisor for 17 months.

I was his longest-serving National Security Advisor.

Yeah, and obviously that's the part that we really want to focus on.

I think you've become known as one of the most prominent American advocates for military action in Iran over a set of decades.

And this war is, in a sense, something that you've argued for long through your career.

But in recent weeks you've emerged as one of the sharpest critics of the Trump administration's actions and how it's conducting this war.

I wanted you to walk me through your critiques.

Where do you think they went wrong from the perspective of someone who wanted to see this happen?

Well, what I support is a policy of regime change in Iran.

I've, uh, held that view for many years because I don't think there's any chance the current regime, uh, uh, will change its behavior on two critical fronts.

It's not going to give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons, which threaten Israel, the United States, really the whole world.

And it's not going to give up on its pursuit of terrorism, its support of terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Shia militia in, uh, Iraq, and, and, uh, conducting terrorist operations around the world.

And I think we've got decades of evidence that their behavior's not going to change.

So when you're confronted with that kind of threat, danger, and

behavior isn't going to change, the alternative is change the regime.

I think the regime is in its weakest position, uh, since any time, uh, after it took power in 1979.

The, uh, young people, uh, are they can see they can have a different kind of life.

Two-thirds of the population is under 30.

The women are enormously dissatisfied since the death of Mahsa Amini.

So to me, conditions are ripe for regime change, uh, as a policy to succeed.

And the question is, what role can the United States play?

And here I think Trump has badly misplayed his hand, uh, from the beginning, unfortunately.

Trump initially did nothing to prepare the American public for the steps necessary to affect regime change.

Normally when a president, uh, uh, is going to take a dramatic action like, uh, Trump has, you explain that to the American people.

You make the case why it's in our national interest, uh, to seek regime change, to avoid the threat of nuclear weapons, to avoid the continuing threat of terrorism.

Uh, you don't have to say anything about what your specific plan is.

But you have to be respectful of our citizens and make the case to them that this is in their interest.

I think there's a very Yeah, that didn't happen. compelling case.

A corollary to that is you need to prepare Congress, certainly on the Republican side, to get their support.

But on the Democratic side too, I think, uh, there are a number of important steps that Congress is going to have to take.

And instead of leaving them, uh, in the dark, it doesn't mean they would agree with you necessarily.

But at least you've stated your case to them, and

it's part of making it to the American people.

The other aspect, uh, one other aspect that Trump failed on was consulting with allies.

You know, normally try and build an international coalition before the war starts, not after it is kind of a second idea.

I mean, we've got very close, uh, ties with Israel.

I think our military planning and preparation has been seamless as far as I can tell.

But there are plenty of others, not just the NATO allies, but

the Gulf states in, uh, in the region who are obviously affected by this, our allies in the Pacific, Japan, South Korea, and

others who get most of their oil from the Gulf.

And this may be the most important of all.

Uh, as far as we can tell, uh, he did he did no preparation of, uh, the opposition actually inside Iran.

Uh, no coordination, no effort to, to, uh, see what they would do, no effort to support them, to provide resources, uh, money, arms if that's what they wanted, telecommunications, just, just no coordination at all.

And given that Trump's made it pretty clear he's not going to put, uh, boots on the ground in any major way, the opposition was always going to have to have a major role in overthrowing the regime.

Uh, and, uh, they don't they don't seem prepared for it.

I guess the question then becomes, why is this happening now?

I mean, my working theory is that Trump got a little trigger happy after Venezuela and has ignored the different context that has taken place here, or has simply, uh, underrepresented, uh, the differences from country to country.

I guess my question is for you then, like, why do you think this is happening now considering, um, he didn't take those steps of preparation?

Uh, honestly, I don't have the slightest idea why he changed his mind from the position he took in the first term.

I and others, uh, tried to make the case to him then that regime change should be our policy, and

we had this debate, and, and, uh, he wanted to go after the nuclear program and make sure it never got started.

But, uh, he did that through economic pressure, what he called a maximum pressure campaign.

It's said publicly, in fact, he was opposed to regime change in Iran.

I, I just I'm, I'm as, uh, uh, at a loss for an explanation as anybody.

I would love for you to slow that down for me.

I mean, take me through those moments in the first Trump administration when you were arguing for things like regime change in Iran.

Was the argument against it, some of the things we've seen now, the possibility of retaliation, the possibility that Iran would control the Strait of Hormuz, are we seeing the realities of what that debate was?

Well, those points were obviously mentioned.

They're sort of a first reaction by any, uh, regime like the Ayatollahs in Tehran to try and use the Strait of Hormuz as a pressure point and to retaliate against its competitors and adversaries in the region, the Gulf Arab states, as well as, uh, as Israel.

So Trump was aware of the possibility that this was a likely retaliatory action?

It's if you know if you look at geography, it's it's obvious that that both attacking the the Gulf Arab states and closing the Strait of Hormuz are some of the first things Iran would consider.

So considering that, I guess I keep going back to, do we know why there wasn't a plan in place, or the administration seemed seemingly surprised by some of these actions?

I mean, Trump said that nobody expected Iran to retaliate against neighboring countries.

What you're saying, you briefed him or you were in discussions about that exact possibility?

Yeah, I mean, it was something you had to consider.

And there were certainly people who didn't want to seek regime change who made those points.

I mean, I think the military, uh, side of, uh, the current campaign shows good planning and good preparation for some objective, whatever it is.

Uh, my only surprise really is that they didn't act earlier, uh, against the possibility of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

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John Bolton wanted war with Iran — but not like this | Today, Explained

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