'Vindictive' Giuliani or 'Bomb Iran' Bolton for Top US Diplomat

In what is expected to disappoint many who argued U.S. President-elect Donald Trump would take a less aggressive foreign policy, his pick for secretary of state is now either former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has been called vindictive and authoritarian, or former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, who has called for bombing Iran.

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Sources close to Trump told several news outlets including the Wall Street Journal and Reuters that Giuliani, New York's mayor at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, said in a meeting Monday that he would prefer being secretary of state over attorney general.

In 2008, the New York Times called Giuliani an “incredibly vindictive mayor.” The paper reported that Giuliani “likens himself to a boxer who never takes a punch without swinging back. As mayor, he made the vengeful roundhouse an instrument of government, clipping anyone who crossed him.”

A Politico profile on the man a few months ago by Kevin Baker suggested that Giuliani “seems to have grown more authoritarian as he has sought and accumulated power," report The Washington Post.

Meanwhile, some have suggested that Giuliani would have a conflict of interest should he become Trump’s secretary of state as one of his roles would be to approve billions of dollars worth of military sales to other countries.

According to the International Business Times, Giuliani made millions of dollars from “his own security consulting business, Giuliani Partners, which landed a contract to help train the security forces of Qatar in 2005, and that same year Giuliani joined the Bracewell law firm in Houston — a longtime lobbyist for the government of Saudi Arabia.”

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On the other hand, if Giuliani fails to land the job, the position could go to John Bolton, a foreign policy hawk who just last year said the United States should bomb Iran to halt its nuclear program.

Bolton worked in George W. Bush's administration and has continued to be a vocal supporter of the Iraq War, which Trump routinely criticized throughout his 18-month campaign, although he had previously supported it.

The man is a known supporter of regime change in the Middle East who believes the U.S. should maintain its interventionist policies in the world to preserve Washington’s superpower status.

This comes despite Trump’s rhetoric ahead of his win last Tuesday suggesting that he would seek a less interventionist foreign policy as he criticized the Iraq invasion, as well as the attempts to oust President Bashar Assad in Syria.