[13] Bolton is widely considered a foreign policy hawk and advocates military action and regime change by the U.S. in Iran, Syria, Libya, Venezuela, Cuba, Yemen, and North Korea.

[64] Also in 2002, Bolton is said to have flown to Europe to demand the resignation of Brazilian José Bustani, head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), and to have orchestrated his removal at a special session of the organization.

[74] "As somebody who has helped plan coups d'etat — not here but, you know, other places — it takes a lot of work, and that's not what [President Donald Trump] did"According to Reuters, "it is highly unusual for U.S. officials to openly acknowledge their role in stoking unrest in foreign countries.

[85] Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman alleged that Bolton played a role in encouraging the inclusion of the statement that British Intelligence had determined Iraq attempted to procure yellowcake uranium from Niger in Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address.

[88] At their August 2005 meeting the IAEA's Board of Governors concluded: "Based on the information currently available to the Agency, the results of that analysis tend, on balance, to support Iran's statement about the foreign origin of most of the observed HEU [highly enriched uranium] contamination.

Bolton said he and his colleagues "view the U.N. as an important component of our diplomacy" and will work to solve its problems and enhance its strengths,[99] echoing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's words from a month earlier.

[102] Republican Senator George Allen said Bolton had the "experience," "knowledge," "background," "and the right principles to come into the United Nations at this time," calling him "the absolute perfect person for the job.

"[108] On April 20, it emerged that Melody Townsel, a former USAID contractor, had reported to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Bolton had used inflammatory language and thrown objects in the course of her work activities in Moscow.

"[112] Also on May 11, Newsweek reported allegations that the American position at the 7th Review Conference in May 2005 of the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty had been undercut by Bolton's "absence without leave" during the nomination fight, quoting anonymous sources "close to the negotiations".

The Republican leadership failed to gain enough support to pass a cloture motion on the floor debate over Bolton, and minority leader Harry Reid conceded the move signaled the "first filibuster of the year."

Scott McClellan, White House press secretary, responded by saying, "Just 72 hours after all the good will and bipartisanship (over a deal on judicial nominees), it's disappointing to see the Democratic leadership resort back to such a partisan approach.

"[citation needed] In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, Republican nominee Donald Trump named Bolton as a possible choice for Secretary of State.

[162] The Huffington Post reported that on May 8, 2018, Bolton removed Timothy Ziemer and dissolved his Global Health Security team formerly on the NSC leaving the administration's high level preparation for and ability to respond to pandemics, infectious disease, and other biological threats unclear.

[191] As the second week of opening statements was set to begin, to be followed by a vote on whether to call witnesses, The New York Times reported that Bolton wrote in his forthcoming book that the President had told him in August 2019 that he wanted to continue freezing the Ukraine aid until officials there pursued investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens.

In 2018, the White House reported that Bolton's total income for 2017 had been $2.2 million which included $569,000 from Fox News and $747,000 in speaking fees from, among others, the Victor Pinchuk Foundation (a Ukrainian NGO), Deutsche Bank, and HSBC.

[208][209][210] In September 2016, Bolton announced that his Super PAC would spend $1 million on (R-N.C.) Senator Richard Burr's reelection effort by targeting ads at "social media users and Dish Network and Direct TV subscribers".

[214] In January 2018, Bolton announced a $1 million advertising campaign in support of Kevin Nicholson's bid for the Republican nomination to run against incumbent Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

[216] Major donors to the John Bolton Super PAC are Robert Mercer, who gave $4 million from 2012 to 2016; Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, and Los Angeles real estate developer Geoffrey Palmer.

[222] On June 17, the Justice Department asked a federal judge to issue an injunction to block publication of the book, which had already been printed, bound and shipped to distribution warehouses for its official release the following week.

[223] Bolton's attorney asserted that the White House was slow-walking the review process to prevent the book, which contained extensive harsh criticism of Trump, from being released during the 2020 election campaign.

They shared a deep skepticism of globalism and multilateralism, a commonality that empowered Mr. Bolton to use his time in the White House to orchestrate the withdrawal of the United States from arms control treaties and other international agreements.

[237] In his roles in the U.S. government, however, Bolton has been more pragmatic in his actions toward international organizations,[238] though according to Foreign Policy, he effectively advanced his views on this subject during his tenure in the Trump Administration.

[261][262] In 2007, Bolton said the only mistake the United States made with regard to Iraq was to not leave earlier after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and tell the Iraqis "Here's a copy of the Federalist Papers.

McMaster and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Bolton campaigned to press President Trump for a complete withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (the JCPOA) and rejected the idea it could be fixed.

Unable at the time to directly present his position to President Trump, Bolton published his proposal on how to withdraw from the Iran deal in an August 28, 2017 National Review Online article.

"[278] In 2019, Bolton, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo successfully sabotaged Trump's attempts to open diplomatic channels with Iran.

§ 101-required 'US Public Financial Disclosure Report' (2018) for Bolton, released by Al-Monitor, he has received $40,000 of speaking fee for "Global Events–European Iranian Events" on June 1, 2017,[286] the same day he made a speech for the MEK in a gathering in Paris, France.

[293] In a December 2021 article entitled "Now Is the Time for NATO to Stand Up to Russia," Bolton called for an aggressive response to Moscow's troops build-up along the Ukraine border, before the full-scale invasion commenced in February 2022.

[299] In a speech as National Security Advisor on November 1, 2018, Bolton praised Brazil's president-elect Jair Bolsonaro and Colombia's president Iván Duque Márquez, both right-wing conservatives, calling them "like-minded" partners.

"[309] On August 10, 2022, an Iranian national and member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Shahram Poursafi, was charged by the United States Department of Justice in an October 2021 plot to allegedly murder Bolton, likely in retaliation for the January 2020 death of Qasem Soleimani.