Trump fires National Security Advisor John Bolton

"I have informed John Bolton that his services are no longer needed at the White House. Like many others in the Administration, I disagreed strongly with many of his recommendations, and therefore I asked John to resign," US President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter.

Trump said Bolton had submitted his resignation letter to him on the morning of September 10. "I thank John very much for his service. I will be announcing a new National Security Advisor next week."

Trump made the announcement on Twitter about 90 minutes before Bolton was scheduled to appear at a news conference with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.Bolton later reportedly left the White House and would not attend the press conference with Pompeo and Mnuchin.

Shortly after Trump's post, Bolton announced on Twitter that he had not been fired, but had offered to resign.

A few days earlier, US media reported that Bolton had opposed Trump's plan to hold peace talks with the Taliban at Camp David. While Trump supported the proposal of Secretary of State Pompeo and several senior officials to hold talks with the Taliban in the US, Bolton, while visiting Poland, contacted the White House to protest. The peace talks were later canceled at the last minute.

Asked whether the relationship between Trump and Bolton had soured over the Taliban peace plan, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said "a lot of issues" had led to the situation.

Trump appointed Bolton as National Security Advisor in March 2018, although the decision was controversial because Bolton was one of the voices supporting the US war launched in Iraq in 2003, while President Trump once said that this war was a "big mistake".

A hardliner, Bolton disagreed with Trump on many issues, especially policies toward Iran and North Korea. While Trump supported negotiations toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Bolton favored a more hardline approach and urged Trump to maintain maximum pressure on Pyongyang.

In an interview on June 23, Trump said that Bolton is "a total hawk" and said that if it were up to Bolton, "he would be fighting the whole world at once." However, the US President said that he needs both "hawks" and "doves" in his administration.