At the 2018 NATO summit in Brussels, Trump had not decided whether to withdraw from NATO until the very moment his microphone was turned on, asking Bolton just minutes before whether to do it, and neither Bolton, Pompeo, nor Mattis knew what he would say until he said it.

factualpending

Speaker

John Bolton

Evidence Quote

none of the three of us knew until Trump actually said it. So, he was that close to it then.

Source

John Bolton Warns: The System Is Breaking Down. The World’s Out of Control And No One's in ChargeDecoding Geopolitics Podcast with Dominik Presl
Created: 6/18/2026, 1:57:40 PM

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