What Is The Point Of John Bolton?

I've mentioned here that for part of my adolescence, I lived with my family in Bethesda, which is one of the wealthiest places in the US, with a median household income in recent years about $190,000. In comparison, the median household income for Beverly Hills is about $127,000; the median household income for Greenwich, CT is about $136,000. The news photos of yesterday morning's FBI raid on John Bolton's home in Bethesda really took me back: that could have been my street and my neighborhood.

I went to Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, whose team is the Barons. (This wasn't the monogram when I went there; at that time, it was more like the mustachioed Monopoly man, but the point is the same.)

Bethesda has its own entry in the Urban Dictionary:

Person from Bethesda: Hi, I'm from Bethesda.

Person Not from Bethesda: Hi, you must be a rich snobby [redacted].

PFB: Well yeah kind of, but at least I'm not from Potomac where it's illegal to wear clothes that cost less than $500 per square inch of fabric.

PNFB: Fair point. Wanna go spend an absurd amount of money on movie tickets?

PFB: Sure, but only if we go to the Row since UA/Lowes is sure to be overpopulated by 10-year-old hookers.

PNFB: Good call.

At some point, I came to a recognition that I really wasn't from Bethesda, even though I went to high school there. But looking at the news photos of John Bolton's house, it suddenly hit me that John Bolton is from Bethesda. What does that mean? Via Wikipedia,

Bolton was born on November 20, 1948, in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Virginia Clara "Ginny" (née Godfrey), a housewife, and Edward Jackson "Jack" Bolton, a Baltimore fireman.   He grew up in the working-class neighborhood of Yale Heights, and won a scholarship to the McDonogh School in Owings Mills, Maryland[.]

So he was raised in a working-class family, but he somehow won the lottery. Via Wikipedia:

McDonogh is regarded as one of the Baltimore region's most prestigious preparatory schools and has been called a "Power School" by Baltimore magazine. The school's students frequently matriculate to Ivy League and other top-ranked colleges and universities.

And his destiny was established. Via the Bolton Wikipedia entry:

Bolton attended Yale College, earning a Bachelor of Arts and graduating summa cum laude in 1970. . . . He attended Yale Law School from 1971 to 1974, where he shared classes and student housing with his friend Clarence Thomas, earning a Juris Doctor in 1974.

In 1972, Bolton was a summer intern for Vice President Spiro Agnew.

Frankly, it's hard for me to avoid thinking the guy was becoming famous for being well-known, or something along that line. He seems to have transitioned easily into a white-shoe law firm career:

From 1974 to 1981, Bolton was an associate at the Washington, D.C. office of Covington & Burling; he returned to the firm again from 1983 to 1985. Bolton was also a partner in the law firm of Lerner, Reed, Bolton & McManus, from 1993 to 1999. He was of counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of Kirkland & Ellis from 2008 until his appointment as National Security Advisor in 2018. In September 2015, Freedom Capital Investment Management appointed Bolton as a senior advisor.

He appears to have bought his current home, shown in yesterday's news reports, in 1986. It is 6500 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 5 baths, worth upward of $2 million. Ah, Bethesda! But I keep asking, what's the point? What does he actually do to live that well? In addition to his work at highly prestigious law firms, he held a series of government positions, including stints at USAID, during the Reagan and George H W Bush administrations. Under Dubya, he became Under Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005, Ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006, but he left that position when the Senate wouldn't confirm him for a longer term. It appears that he'd become highly controversial.

The best I can conclude is that he was an Ivy Leaguer, a Yale Law grad, and a Republican with contacts who happened to be around when the patronage was handed out, but he also seems to have had a knack for making enemies. Nevertheless, with Trump's election in 2016, he was short-listed for various key positions, including Secretary of State, but he never quite got them.

Several Trump associates claim Bolton was not chosen, in part, due to Trump's disdain for Bolton's signature mustache.

Whatever the source of Trump's instincts, it should be acknowledged that they're often spot on. Nevertheless,

The New York Times reported on March 22, 2018, that John Bolton would replace National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster, which was confirmed by Trump in a tweet later that day.

. . . By May 2019, Trump had undercut some of Bolton's major hard line positions, stating he was not seeking regime change in Iran and contradicting Bolton's assertion that North Korea had recently violated United Nations resolutions by testing new short-range missiles.

. . . On September 10, 2019, President Trump claimed on Twitter that he had told Bolton on September 9 his "services are no longer needed" given "many" disagreements with Trump, thus Bolton gave his resignation on September 10.

But what does Bolton do now to support his Bethesda lifestyle? Sundance at Conservative Treehouse offers some insight:

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton is a well-documented neocon, who operates inside the business model of selling U.S. foreign policy influence for personal gain. His activity mirrors that of former Senator John McCain in many regards.

John Bolton sold his access, contacts and ability to influence policy to the highest bidder. In DC parlance they call that a “consultant.” When the consulting is contracted for a specific national interest, the title shifts to “lobbyist.” That was his job, and all of Washington DC knows it.

Washington DC operates on this business model; the entire system will be soft to criticize Bolton and many will likely defend him.

The FBI raid on his residence and office has led to a considerable amount of speculation. However, as some background details start to come out, it appears CIA Director John Ratcliffe provided FBI Director Kash Patel with specifics on the international travels and efforts of Bolton.

That CIA referral has led to an FBI investigation under the auspices of potential violations of the espionage act, where Bolton would have leveraged current or prior classified intelligence information as part of his influence business.

The implication seems to be that Bolton made money by in effect trading on secret information, but the practice was more widespread than just Bolton, and others are also under investigation. Well, it's Bethesda. More here:

🚨💣 THREAD: John Bolton: The Man Who Never Saw a War He Didn’t Like 💣🚨

John Bolton got his start as Reagan's assistant administrator of USAID -- a time when USAID was dramatically re-transformed from Nixon-era "New Directions" third-world assistance to being contingent on… pic.twitter.com/oALm8gquGf

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025