President Donald Trump on Monday reportedly dismissed speculation about future FBI raids targeting his critics, instead reminding reporters that federal agents had already raided his own Florida residence in what he has long described as a politically motivated spectacle.
Taking questions in the Oval Office after welcoming South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, Trump was asked about Friday’s FBI search of former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s Maryland home.
As he has previously, Trump said he had no knowledge of the operation.
“I have not been briefed. No, I read it just like you did,” Trump told reporters. “I was never a fan of his. I thought he was stupid. I thought he was, you know, a guy that only wanted to go into war. He liked killing people. I thought he was essentially a bad guy. But I’m not involved in that. No, you’d have to ask Pam Bondi about that.”
When pressed on whether more such raids were planned, Trump turned the conversation back to his own experience with the FBI.
“They raided my house. I can tell you that. They did a big raid on my house. They took away everything that wasn’t pinned down, and they took away some of that, too,” Trump recalled. “They raided Mar-a-Lago. They started that. These were bad people that we had in our government, before. They raided Mar-a-Lago. They went into my wife’s area. They went into my son’s area, my young son. And what they did was a disgrace.”
Trump went on to frame the Mar-a-Lago raid as emblematic of a broader abuse of power, carried out by officials he described as politically motivated.
“They are bad people. They’re sick. They’re sick people, and they came in with their guns into Mar-a-Lago. And like, 98 people. I wasn’t there. Fortunately, I wasn’t there,” the president said. “But they are very evil, very sick people that group. And they, if they would have won the election, this country wouldn’t exist as we know it. This country would have been a failed country. And now it’s the hottest country anywhere in the world by far.”
Bolton, who served briefly in the Trump administration from 2018 to 2019, had his home searched Friday morning around 7 a.m. in what was described as a “national security probe.” Agents were seen carrying boxes out of the residence, though officials have not given a public reason for the raid. Trump was unsparing in his assessment of his former advisor, labeling him a “sleazebag” when asked about the search.
The August 2022 FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago led to the seizure of over 13,000 government documents. Prosecutors alleged Trump improperly retained classified material after leaving the White House.
Special Counsel Jack Smith later brought charges in 2023, accusing the president of illegally holding documents and obstructing their retrieval.
Those indictments, however, were dropped after Trump’s 2024 election victory. Speaking Monday, Trump underscored the irony of being questioned about Bolton’s case while sitting in the Oval Office. “How did it work out? Oh, I see we’re in the Oval Office,” he said. “Oh, I guess it didn’t work out too well for ’em, did it?”
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