Earlier today, I wrote a Corner post noting how little we had heard about the fact that John Bolton announced his run for president earlier this month. As it turns out, Bolton hasn’t officially announced a presidential run, despite widespread reporting that he had. The confusion began on January 6, when Good Morning Britain reported that Bolton “has told us that he will run for US President,” featuring a sit-down interview with the former Trump national security advisor. Media headlines quickly echoed the news: “John Bolton Announces 2024’s Most Ridiculous Presidential Bid,” (New York magazine); John Bolton announces he WILL run for the White House in 2024 (Daily Mail); John Bolton vows 2024 presidential run to stop Donald Trump securing White House (Independent).
But if you actually listen to what Bolton says in the interview, it’s conditional — he stops short of officially announcing a run: “I would get in to win the nomination…I wouldn’t run as a vanity candidate. If I didn’t think I could run seriously, then I wouldn’t get in the race.” American journalists — including me — viewed that conditional wording in the context of GMB’s deceptive framing. That was a mistake. The premise of my initial post was that it was odd that we hadn’t heard anything from Bolton since he announced his run. As it turns out, the obvious reason for that silence is that he hadn’t announced a run at all. If something sounds too weird to be true, it often isn’t. Mea culpa.
Editor’s Note: This replaces an earlier post that had been based on the error described above.