once had plenty of praise for him, his intelligence, and perhaps most important to this president, his tough guy image. >> i think he's, you know, a tough cookie. he knows what he's talking about. john is a terrific giuy. we had some good meetings with him. knows a lot. has a good number of ideas that i must tell you i agree very much with. i think he's going to be a fantastic representative of our team. he's highly respected by everybody in this room. great john bolton. they think he's so nasty and so tough, that i have to hold him back, okay? that's pretty great. and he's doing a great job. he has strong views on things, but that's okay. i actually temper john, which is pretty amazing, isn't it? i have different sides. i mean i have john bolton, and i have other people that are a little more dovish than him, and ultimately i make the decision. i like john. >> those feelings have apparently been cooling all year with the two clashing over iran, north korea, russia, and more