ABC- 24 March 2018- President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement Thursday to replace his national security adviser H.R. McMaster with John Bolton is not only part of a broader shakeup but represents a shift toward an increasingly hawkish foreign policy posture as he faces major decisions within weeks on North Korea and Iran.

Robert Malley, who served on the National Security Council during the Obama and Clinton administrations, says Trump’s choice of Bolton amounts to nails in the coffin for the President Barack Obama’s landmark foreign policy achievement, the Iran nuclear deal.

Bolton has been vocal in advocating for tearing up the deal, an idea that President Trump has also expressed support for even as he has stopped short of withdrawing from the deal thus far.
Bolton is joined in opposing the Iran deal by CIA director Mike Pompeo, the president’s nominee to replace Rex Tillerson, an Iran deal supporter, as secretary of state.

“All signs have been pointing toward a likely decision by President Trump to withdraw from an agreement that was working,” Malley said. “I think the dismissal of Secretary Tillerson with Mike Pompeo was a sign that the deal was probably dead and I think the replacement of H.R. McMaster by John Bolton is a sign that the deal is not just dead, but dead and buried.”