John Kelly just threw Donald Trump under the bus

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The leaks from John Bolton’s upcoming book could be enough to finish off what’s left of Donald Trump’s presidency. And because Bolton is specifically confirming that Trump committed a crime in his Ukraine scandal, Bolton’s book could end up helping to send Trump to prison. It’s a given that battle lines are going to quickly be drawn within the overlap between Trump’s orbit and Bolton’s orbit.

It turns out Donald Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff, retired General John Kelly, is wasting no time choosing sides. Kelly made a public appearance today, and naturally, Bolton’s new allegations against Trump surfaced as a topic. Kelly said this, according to the local newspaper: “If John Bolton says that in the book, I believe John Bolton.”

This is notable because even after leaving the White House, John Kelly has always been overly hesitant to publicly criticize Donald Trump, to the point of large swaths of the public labeling Kelly a coward. But now that John Bolton is taking this huge swing at Trump and landing a potentially crushing blow, Kelly appears to see an opportunity to also attack Trump, while hiding behind Bolton’s book.

Now we’ll see who else ends up going this same route. John Bolton has numerous friends and allies in the Republican Party and on the far right political landscape – including a number of people who have worked for Donald Trump, past and present. John Kelly is jumping on the Bolton train awfully quickly.