John Bolton Warns MSNBC’s Jen Psaki: Bad Actors May ‘Already’ Be ‘Taking Advantage’ of Trump Facing $450M in Legal Damages

PSAKI: “At a time when Donald Trump and much of the Republican Party, too many in the Republican Party, are trying to imitate Vladimir Putin or looking the other way, his top political rival has just turned up dead. Can’t think of anyone better to talk to than someone who sat face-to-face with Vladimir Putin himself, on behalf of Trump himself. Joining me now is Donald Trump’s former national security advisor, Ambassador John Bolton. So, we were just talking about this during the break. I mean, this has been quite a week. You start with Trump saying that Russia can do whatever they want, as it relates to NATO countries. It continued with a complete standstill on aid to Ukraine, something they desperately need given the progress Russia has made even over the weekend. It ended, of course, with the death of Alexei Navalny. You’ve sat in a lot of these rooms, many of them. I just want to sort of ask you, how does Putin, how does he consume what’s happening here in the United States, Trump’s words, or lack of words I should say, in some cases?”
BOLTON: “Well, I think he sees things moving in his direction. And he really outdid himself in terms of disinformation a couple of days ago by — a Reporter asked, ‘What do you think of Biden versus Trump?’ And he said, ‘Well, Biden is predictable,’ and so on, implying he was endorsing Biden — “
PSAKI: “What did you think of that when you heard that?”
BOLTON: “It’s a clear disinformation effort.”
PSAKI: “To confuse people.”
BOLTON: “To give Trump the opportunity, which he is foolish enough to take, to say, ‘I thought that was actually a compliment to me.’ I mean, if Trump is elected, there will be celebrations in the Kremlin, there is no doubt about it. Because Putin thinks that he is an easy mark.”
PSAKI: “Easy. Easy to manipulate. I mean, this week there was also some pretty big news about Trump having to pay now. I mean, it is $450 million from just this week, with interest. You are familiar with how foreign capitalists think about these things. Are you worried about Trump having all of this money he owes and being a target in that way, of people like Putin and other foreign autocrats?”
BOLTON: “Well, I think it is going to result in him having to liquidate some of his properties. I don’t see where he is going to get the cash. Although it is not really a near-term problem. He will appeal, he will have to post a bond, a course, but I think these are the things that really affect him most immediately because this is his money. And let’s face it, what Donald Trump cares about most of all is Donald Trump, and particularly Donald Trump’s money.”
PSAKI: “But could foreign autocrats — I mean, they look and they target. You said he is a good target. Could they look at him and think, ‘Ah! He is a good target. He owns tons of money, he’s got to liquidate assets, he may not even have it?’”
BOLTON: “Yeah. I mean, I think this is one of the demonstrations of why Trump really is not fit for office. He is consumed by these troubles, his family is consumed by them. And I think foreigners will try to take advantage of it one way or another. They may be doing it already.”