Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton delivered a private speech at Morgan Stanley’s global investment event in Miami last week in which he said something almost everyone else suspects at the very least.
Bolton initially played Captain Obvious by saying Trump conducts foreign policy like one of his businesses, but then he made a more specific accusation about Trump's decision-making process in Syria and Turkey.
According to Bolton, Trump decided to abandon our Kurdish allies and open the doorway for Turkey's invasion for personal reasons.
According to six people who were there, Bolton also questioned the merits of Trump applying his business acumen to foreign policy, saying such issues can’t be approached like the win-or-lose edict that drives real estate deals: When one doesn’t work, you move on to the next. [...]
Bolton told the gathering of Morgan Stanley’s largest hedge fund clients that he was most frustrated with Trump over his handling of Turkey, people who were present said. Noting the broad bipartisan support in Congress to sanction Turkey after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan purchased a Russian missile defense system, Bolton said Trump’s resistance to the move was unreasonable, four people present for his speech said.
Bolton said he believes there is a personal or business relationship dictating Trump’s position on Turkey because none of his advisers are aligned with him on the issue, the people present said.
Trump deciding to do the exact opposite of what his advisers say is not necessarily proof that he did this for personal reasons because Trump often does whatever his emotional whims tell him to do, but this is different. Trump's name is on property in Istanbul that delivers millions of dollars to him every year in royalties and the Turkish oligarch who owns the property could easily take Trump's name off of it.
Trump's failsons supposedly run the family business in his absence, but Trump still owns it.