Wall Street Journal hits Trump with brutal editorial over 'vindictive' raid on John Bolton's home

BETHESDA, MARYLAND: The Wall Street Journal just dropped a sledgehammer of an editorial targeting President Donald Trump, tearing into him for unleashing the FBI on his ally-turned-nemesis John Bolton.

On Friday, August 22, FBI agents rolled up to Bolton’s Bethesda, Maryland, home at about 7.00 am sharp. They were armed with a search warrant, looking for classified documents in what the New York Post called a “national security probe.”

A senior US official told the outlet that the investigation into Bolton had started “years ago,” but was iced “for political reasons.” That freeze is now over.

FBI Director Kash Patel himself reportedly ordered the raid. “NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission,” he posted on X (formerly Twitter) at 7.03 am on Friday, just as agents were rummaging through Bolton’s home and office.

Vice President JD Vance later chimed in on NBC’s 'Meet the Press', telling Kristen Welker that the investigation wasn’t just about classified files and had to do with a “broad concern” over Bolton.

WSJ calls John Bolton raid 'ominous turn' in Trump’s revenge campaign

John Bolton has been one of Donald Trump’s loudest critics since leaving the White House in September 2019. Earlier this year, he declared that Trump’s “mind is full of mush and he says whatever comes into it.”

So when the FBI came knocking, the Wall Street Journal smelled something fishy.

“President Trump promised voters during his campaign for a second term that he had bigger things on his mind than retribution against opponents. But it is increasingly clear that vengeance is a large part, maybe the largest part, of how he will define success in his second term,” the Journal’s editorial alleged.

For the Journal, this FBI raid wasn’t just about dusty files but about Trump’s never-ending grudge. “It’s hard to see the raid as anything other than vindictive,” the paper wrote, calling it an “ominous turn” in Trump’s “revenge campaign.”

The beef goes way back. After falling out with Trump, Bolton wrote a tell-all book about his West Wing days while Trump was still president. Trump tried and failed to block its release, claiming it leaked classified info. But the Journal insisted that “the book had gone through an extensive pre-publication scrub at the White House for classified material.”

“The book investigation faded away under President Biden, but now it looks as if Mr Patel is reviving it,” the Journal said. “Mr Patel knows what the President thinks about Mr Bolton, and the President’s minions in Trump II don’t serve as the check on his worst impulses the way grown-ups did in his first term. The presidential id is now unchained."

Trump stripped John Bolton of his protective detail after reelection

The Journal declared to readers that Donald Trump already showed he was “out for blood against Mr Bolton” when he yanked the ex-adviser’s protective detail after his reelection.

That move was dangerous, considering Bolton’s hawkish reputation. Back in 2022, the Justice Department charged an Iranian national with plotting to murder him. It wasn’t just Bolton in the crosshairs; Iran also targeted former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his adviser Brian Hook.

But Trump pulled their security too — making it public in a way that, according to the Journal, “all but told the Iranians that the Americans were more vulnerable.” The commander-in-chief reasoned at the time, “When you have protection, you can’t have it for the rest of your life.”

The Journal called that “the kind of gratuitous viciousness that has increasingly defined Mr Trump’s return to office.”

By the end, the editorial left no room for doubt about who it thinks is the real villain here.

“The real offender here is a President who seems to think he can use the powers of his office to run vendettas. We said this was one of the risks of a second Trump term, and it’s turning out to be worse than we imagined," the newspaper wrote.