Mattis tells Bolton 'I heard you're the devil incarnate'

US Defense Secretary James Mattis has told President Donald Trump’s incoming hawkish national security adviser John Bolton that he is the “devil incarnate” after greeting him at the Pentagon on Thursday.

"Ambassador Bolton, so good to see you. Thanks for coming and it's good to finally meet you. I’ve heard that you’re actually the devil incarnate and I wanted to meet you,” Mattis can be heard telling Bolton.

Bolton laughed off the remark as the two men shook hands and walked past reporters into the Pentagon for their official meeting.

The Pentagon said the purpose of Thursday’s meeting was to build a “productive partnership” but offered no details on what the two men discussed.

It was an unusual start for two men who are strangers to each other and will be the nexus of the White House National Security Council.

Bolton is set to officially replace H.R. McMaster as national security adviser on April 9.

Trump has shaken up his core national security team in the past two weeks, replacing national security adviser H.R. McMaster and firing Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state.

Mattis is one of the last remaining members of Trump’s original national security team.

PressTV-‘Bolton completes Trump’s war cabinet’

Bolton is expected to step up Trump’s animosity towards Russia, Iran and North Korea.

Bolton, a noted hard-liner and bureaucratic infighter, has argued for attacking Iran and North Korea. He advocated for the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.

Bolton, a 69-year-old Fox News analyst, was the former US ambassador to the UN during the administration of former President George W. Bush.

There have been speculations that the two men will clash on a host of major national issues. Just two days earlier, Mattis dismissed fears he and Bolton wouldn’t get along.

“I hope that there are some different worldviews. That’s the normal thing you want, unless you want groupthink,” Mattis said. “We’re going to sit down together. I look forward to working with him. Last time I checked, he’s an American. I can work with an American, OK?”

With Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un set to hold direct talks for denuclearization in the coming months, Bolton’s choice as a fierce Pyongyang skeptic has already raised the alarms among Washington’s allies who hoped the talks would help reduce tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

In an interview with USA TODAY on Monday, former US President Jimmy Carter said Trump may have made “one of the worst mistakes” of his tenure by appointing Bolton.

Carter, 93, described the appointment “a disaster for our country.”

“Maybe one of the worst mistakes that President Trump has made since he’s been in office is his employment of John Bolton, who has been advocating a war with North Korea for a long time and even an attack on Iran, and who has been one of the leading figures on orchestrating the decision to invade Iraq,” Carter said.

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