President Donald Trump said Friday that he was not informed ahead of time about the FBI raid on former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s home, telling reporters he first learned of the search from television coverage.
The raid was part of an ongoing federal investigation into Bolton’s handling of classified information. Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security adviser from 2018 to 2019, has faced scrutiny over his 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened, which the government alleged contained sensitive national security details that had not been properly cleared for publication.
Federal prosecutors have argued that Bolton bypassed established prepublication review processes, though he has maintained that the book went through appropriate channels.
The Justice Department has not commented publicly on the raid, and it remains unclear what materials agents seized. Trump distanced himself from the operation, stressing that he had no prior knowledge of the FBI’s plans.
? BREAKING: Federal agents are RIGHT NOW in John Bolton's home "going through things" following an early morning FBI RAID in the DC area over national security concerns.
Yes. We did, indeed, vote for this.
This is Bolton's primary residence.
"This deals with classified… pic.twitter.com/PmIOAxTgtA
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 22, 2025
“No, I don’t know about it. I saw it on television this morning,” Trump said when asked by reporters if he had been informed in advance about the raid. “I’m not a fan of John Bolton. He’s a real sort of a low-life,” he added.
Trump then described Bolton as someone who “wants to always kill people” and “is very bad at what he does,” but added that Bolton’s presence sometimes worked to his advantage in foreign meetings. Trump suggested this was because foreign governments believed the United States could adopt a more aggressive posture due to Bolton’s reputation.
Asked whether he expected a briefing from the Department of Justice regarding the raid, Trump said, “Yeah, they’ll be probably [briefing me] today sometime.”
