#Bolton says Putin thinks he can play Trump ‘like a fiddle’

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Alexander Nemenov/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo; AP Photo/Mark Humphrey; Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

President Trump’s former national security advisor believes Trump is putty in the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I think Putin thinks he can play him like a fiddle,” John Bolton said in an excerpt of an ABC News interview scheduled to air this Sunday night.

“I think Putin is smart, tough. I think he sees he’s not faced with a serious adversary here,” Bolton went on. “I don’t think he’s worried about Donald Trump.”

The interview comes on the heels of the release of Bolton’s bombshell tell-all book from his time in the White House, “The Room Where It Happened,” scheduled to be published June 23.

The book alleges the president pressed China’s Xi Jinping to help Trump’s reelection, among other unflattering anecdotes and stories from the Oval Office.

The White House has gone to great lengths to pressure Bolton and his publisher Simon & Schuster from publishing his book. The Trump administration has sued to block its release and Trump himself warned that Bolton could face criminal charges.

Bolton went on in his one-on-one interview to slam Trump for being inept when it came to foreign policy when ABC News’ Martha Raddatz asked about the president’s deal-making abilities.

“The president may well be a superb dealmaker when it comes to Manhattan real estate,” Bolton said. “Dealing with arms limitation treaties on strategic weapons, dealing in many, many other international security issues are things far removed from his life experience.”

The former diplomat said Trump “didn’t like” learning or reading about such issues.

“When you’re dealing with somebody like Putin who has made his life understanding Russia’s strategic positioning in the world against Donald Trump, who doesn’t enjoy reading about these issues, or learning about them, it’s a very difficult position for America to be in.”