Bolton Expected to ‘Clean House’ 
 
 Incoming National Security Advisor John Bolton and people close to him are expected to launch a massive shake-up at the National Security Council, aiming to remove dozens of current White House officials, starting with holdovers from President Barack Obama’s administration, according to multiple sources. 
 
 Those targeted for removal include officials believed to have been disloyal to President Donald Trump, those who have leaked about the president to the media, his predecessor’s team, and those who came in under Obama. 
 
 “Bolton can and will clean house,” one former White House official said. 
 
 Another source said, “He is going to remove almost all the political [appointees] McMaster brought in.” 
 
 A second former White House official offered a blunt assessment of former Obama officials currently detailed or appointed to the NSC: “Everyone who was there during Obama years should start packing their shit.” 
 
 On Thursday evening, just hours after Trump tapped him for the job, Bolton held a call with longtime advisors, including Matthew Freedman, a Republican consultant who once advised Bolton at the State Department and the United Nations. Freedman is currently helping manage the transition, according to a source familiar with the call. 
 
 “Freedman is a very political guy that Bolton likes,” one Republican source said. “He is overly ambitious about cleaning house.” 
 
 Freedman disputed that account, saying he was not aware of the Thursday phone call. “I can tell you there is no list,” he said. 
 
 Another source close to Bolton said it was premature to be talking about personnel changes. 
 
 Trump and Bolton see eye to eye on a more hawkish foreign policy, especially when it comes to North Korea and Iran, and are equally averse to multilateral diplomacy, whether that means the U.N. or working with the European Union. 
 
 That has veterans of the Trump administration predicting that Bolton will quickly seek to install his own team at the NSC, which functions as a clearing house for policy advice and is supposed to integrate the different perspectives of U.S. government agencies. 
 
 Among the officials Bolton’s allies are urging him to fire is Nadia Schadlow, currently the deputy national security advisor for strategy. Schadlow was the primary author of the administration’s recently released National Security Strategy, which was viewed as a surprisingly mainstream document that reaffirmed many traditional U.S. foreign-policy positions. Another official likely to be targeted in a Bolton purge is McMaster’s deputy, Ricky Waddell. 
 
 It wouldn’t be the first purge to follow a change in Trump’s national security advisor. When Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster replaced retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn in the job last year, McMaster systematically eliminated officials seen as loyal to his predecessor. According to four sources close to the White House, some of those so-called “Flynnstones” — advisors loyal to Flynn — are believed to be plotting their return to the NSC. 
 
 Whether Bolton will sign off on the staff purge his allies and advisors are pushing is less clear, though he has been insistent about ousting so-called Obama holdovers. “You could easily say that people close to Bolton want these people to go,” one source said. Other sources stress that Bolton, a veteran bureaucratic infighter, makes his own decisions. 
 
 A source close to Bolton cautioned that any staffing changes would take time, given the need to process security clearances. That means Bolton will likely be stuck with his current staff for the May summit meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. 
 
 Bolton is a known quantity for Trump, who has for years watched the former George W. Bush administration official on Fox News. He enters the White House with Trump’s ear, the source close to Bolton said, which promises to further raise tensions with chief of staff John Kelly. Whether Kelly and Bolton are able to forge a working relationship will mark an early test for both men’s ability to run a well-functioning staff. 
 
 Another question concerns Bolton’s traditionally hard-line stance toward Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which is at odds with Trump’s. Two sources familiar with Bolton’s relationship with Trump said one of the big unknowns was how Bolton’s approach to Russia will go over with the president or if he’s even aware of those differences. 
 
 Trump and Bolton have discussed staffing changes since at least last July, when Bolton was offered the job as McMaster’s deputy, the position currently held by Waddell. Trump told Bolton that the deputy job would lead to the top post, but Bolton declined, saying he’d rather wait until he was offered the national security advisor job, according to three sources familiar with the matter. 
 
 McMaster’s departure may have been hastened by leaks emanating from the White House. Two sources familiar with the matter said McMaster was going to stay on until early summer. 
 
 But when the Washington Post reported this week that Trump had congratulated Putin in a phone call on his fraudulent election win — after receiving written briefing materials from the NSC instructing him not to congratulate Putin — the president reacted furiously and blamed McMaster. The story caused Trump to speed up McMaster’s departure, the sources said. 

 Gun control advocate Mark Kelly speaks beside his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, on Capitol Hill on Oct. 2. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo Mark Kelly: Parkland shooting ‘could be different’ 
 
 Gun control advocate Mark Kelly said the political results of activism after the massacre at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, “could be different” than the results after previous mass shootings. 
 
 Kelly, a former astronaut who founded the gun control group Giffords with his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, said Sunday the group had made some progress in passing state-level laws since the deaths of 27 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 but had been stymied at the congressional level. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 “These young people seem quite motivated, and they realize that they have been dealt an incredibly difficult set of circumstances, have been put in a horrible position,“ Kelly said on ABC’s “This Week,” adding: “They want to see change. So that’s why I think this could be different.” 
 
 Kelly’s comments came the day after the March for Our Lives, which drew millions of protesters in Washington and at satellite marches across the country, to advocate for gun control measures after the Parkland massacre. The Feb. 14 shooting left 17 people dead. 
 
 Kelly told host Martha Raddatz he believes President Donald Trump would sign gun control legislation if it was passed “fast.” 
 
 “I’m hopeful that if we could get Congress, get the House and Senate to pass some sensible legislation, we get it to his desk,” Kelly said. “I think there’s a pretty good chance he might sign it.” 

 "If President Trump believes in DACA, all he has to do is retract his executive order from September," Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said. | Alex Wong/Getty Images Kaine: Trump is ‘lying’ or ‘delusional’ on DACA 
 
 Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine shot back Sunday at President Donald Trump’s rhetoric on DACA, saying the president is “lying“ or “delusional” when he blames Democrats for the end of the program. 
 
 “He is either lying or he is completely delusional,” the Democratic senator said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” adding later: “If President Trump believes in DACA, all he has to do is retract his executive order from September, where he broke a promise to Dreamers and said he was going to end the program.” 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 In September, Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which was established by former President Barack Obama to allow some undocumented immigrants in the United States to stay in the country legally and obtain work permits. Negotiations to revive the program have repeatedly failed in Congress. 
 
 Trump has tried to blame Democrats for the failure of negotiations. “DACA was abandoned by the Democrats. Very unfair to them!,” Trump wrote on Friday. 
 
 “We do not have the support of the White House; we don't have the support of Republicans," Kaine said. “We either have to change their minds, or we have to get more Democrats in office.” 
 
 
 
 The most reliable politics newsletter. Sign up for POLITICO Playbook and get the latest news, every morning — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. 

 President Trump Donald John TrumpCurbelo explains reason he forgave man who tweeted death threat Obama accuses Trump of ‘political stunt’ on border politics Voter registration in California reaches all-time high before midterms MORE's incoming national security adviser John Bolton said Sunday he hopes impending economic tariffs against China could be "a little shock therapy" for the country. 
 
 Bolton pointed to Trump's announcement Thursday that the U.S. would impose up to $60 billion in tariffs against China over what he called its unfair trade practices. China has already threatened reciprocal tariffs over the move. 
 
 Trump said the tariffs on Chinese products were aimed at curbing China's infringement of copyrights and intellectual property patents that cost U.S. companies billions in lost revenue each year. 
 
 "I don't think anybody is looking to have a trade war," Bolton told New York AM 970 radio host John Catsimatidis in an interview broadcast Sunday. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 "For far too long China has taken advantage of its place in the world ... the trade arrangements it has with the United States and other countries," he continued. 
 
 "The United States lives by these agreements," Bolton said. "All we’re asking for here is for the Chinese to do the same. So I think this could be a little shock therapy, get their attention, and hopefully it'll have a good impact.” 
 
 Trump called for the tariffs in response to a government study confirming the economic damage done over stolen intellectual property. 
 
 The president signed a memorandum Thursday demanding sweeping actions by the Treasury Department against the world's second-largest economy. 
 
 "They just copy it and build their own. It's theft. There's no other description for it," Bolton said of China's trade practices involving intellectual property. 
 
 China is reportedly planning a retaliatory set of tariffs in response that would target $3 billion in U.S. imports. 
 
 Trump named Bolton, a former ambassador to the United Nations, as his new national security adviser, replacing H.R. McMaster. 
 
 Bolton, who will become the third person to hold the White House post under Trump, will enter the position next month.
– Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine fired back at President Trump Sunday over DACA's demise, which Trump blames on Democrats. "He is either lying or he is completely delusional,” Kaine says on CNN’s State of the Union, per Politico. "If President Trump believes in DACA, all he has to do is retract his executive order from September where he broke a promise to Dreamers and said he was going to end the program." Indeed, Trump axed the program in September, undoing President Obama's effort to let so-called Dreamers—undocumented immigrants brought to America as children—get work permits and stay in America. Negotiations between Trump and Democrats over DACA have repeatedly failed. "DACA was abandoned by the Democrats," Trump tweeted Friday. "Very unfair to them!" In other political news: John Bolton says tariffs against China could give the country "a little shock therapy." On New York AM 970 radio Sunday, the incoming national security advisor says Trump's proposed $60 billion in tariffs should limit China's infringements of intellectual property patents and copyrights. "The United States lives by these agreements," says Bolton, per the Hill. "All we're asking for here is for the Chinese to do the same." Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy sees Trump shaking up his administration yet again, Politico reports. A good friend of Trump's, Ruddy said on ABC's This Week: "The president told me he’s perplexed by all of these reports, there’s chaos at the White House, more mass staff changes. He did say that he’s expecting to make one or two major changes to his government very soon, and that’s going to be it." Sources tell Foreign Policy that Bolton is expected to "clean house" with staff changes at the National Security Council. "He is going to remove almost all the political [appointees] McMaster brought in," per one source. Gun control advocate and former astronaut Mark Kelly says the Parkland school shooting "could be different" in sparking new legislation, Politico reports. "These young people seem quite motivated" and "want to see change," he says on This Week. "So that's why I think this could be different."