John Bolton says he knows “just” what Trump will do next, which is frightening

John Bolton, a former national security adviser for President Donald Trump, said it was clear that negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin were already in place on Ukraine.

“I think we know exactly what will happen: President Trump surrendered to Putin before the negotiations began,” Bolton told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.

Trump said Wednesday that he spoke with his Russian rival and the two agreed to start negotiations on an end of the war, which began three years ago when Russia invaded its neighbors. Later in the day, Defense Minister Pete Hegseth said Russia should be able to retain some of the Ukrainian territory it occupied and that Ukraine should not be part of NATO.

Bolton called these concessions a “complete reversal of the U.S. position” and a major victory for Putin.

“The position announced by Defense Secretary Heggs in Brussels – I’m sure I would be shocked by the Kremlin if Trump didn’t directly convey them to Putin,” he said. “Maybe they wrote it in the Kremlin and came out in the publicity channel.”

He called these early concessions a big mistake.

“If you are going to negotiate, you are not announcing something acceptable and giving up your position before you start,” he said.

He added that Putin also won something else he wanted: Negotiating with Trump instead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Putin doesn’t want to negotiate with Zelenskyy, he wants to negotiate with Trump because he thinks he’ll get more from him and he’s absolutely right,” Bolton said.

Bolton said it was also a misleading situation to President Joe Biden.

“But the surrender will be signed by Donald Trump,” he said.

Check out the full interview below: