Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton says he was “always worried” the president might take Theodore Roosevelt’s Nobel Peace Prize from the White House.
Trump has publicly obsessed about his inability to secure the prestigious award and campaigned to receive one with inflated claims of ending eight wars around the globe.
Bolton made the claim during an appearance on CNN on Monday night ahead of Trump’s Thursday White House meeting with the 2025 prize winner, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
Trump was recently asked if he would install her as the leader of the country if she gave him her award, which the Norwegian Nobel Institute has reiterated cannot be shared.
“Well, I have to speak to her,” Trump said. “I’m gonna have to speak to her. She might be involved in some aspect of it. I will have to speak to her. I think it’s very nice that she wants to come in. And that’s what I understand the reason is… I can’t think of anybody in history that should get the Nobel Prize more than me. And I don’t want to be bragging, but nobody else settled wars.”
Bolton, who faces 18 separate charges of mishandling classified information in a case brought by Trump’s DoJ, told host Erin Burnett that he was always concerned about the fate of Roosevelt’s prize.
“Look, it’s always all about Trump,” Bolton said.
“He cares less about Venezuela than he does the prize. And by the way, she can give him the medallion and still keep the prize, if that’s what he wants. Theodore Roosevelt’s Nobel medallion hangs on the wall of the Roosevelt Room in the White House. I’ve always worried Trump would grab that if he can’t get another one. She could probably find a replacement somewhere.”
Roosevelt was awarded the prize in 1906 after he helped end the Russo-Japanese War through the 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth.
