--- title: Press Sec Suggests 'Age' Kept John Bolton From Twitter description: Grisham was responding to allegations Bolton made about his Twitter account being blocked by the White House. canonical: https://time.com/5737993/advanced-age-john-bolton-twitter-account/ author: Josiah Bates article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-11-23T18:56:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:52:27.338Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Press Secretary Suggests 'Advanced Age' Kept John Bolton From Accessing His Twitter Account og:description: Bolton tweeted that his Twitter account was blocked by the White House og:url: https://time.com/5737993/advanced-age-john-bolton-twitter-account/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt646a5d3c435c9f53/698a06930116823bb697e96e/ap_19312614212652.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5393 og:image:height: 3034 og:image:alt: Stephanie Grisham, Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Press Secretary Suggests 'Advanced Age' Kept John Bolton From Accessing His Twitter Account twitter:description: Bolton tweeted that his Twitter account was blocked by the White House twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt646a5d3c435c9f53/698a06930116823bb697e96e/ap_19312614212652.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Press Secretary Suggests 'Advanced Age' Kept John Bolton From Accessing His Twitter Account > Sponsored content. 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President Donald Trump said Tuesday he fired national security adviser John Bolton, citing strong disagreements on a number of policy issues._ by [Josiah Bates](https://time.com/author/josiah-bates/) ## Josiah Bates Josiah Bates is a criminal justice reporter and a former TIME staff writer. He currently works for The Trace. Nov 23, 2019 6:56 PM UTC  White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham listens as President Donald Trump, right, speaks to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Friday, Nov. 8, 2019. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham listens as President Donald Trump, right, speaks to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Friday, Nov. 8, 2019. Andrew Harnik—AP by [Josiah Bates](https://time.com/author/josiah-bates/) ## Josiah Bates Josiah Bates is a criminal justice reporter and a former TIME staff writer. He currently works for The Trace. Nov 23, 2019 6:56 PM UTC While appearing on Fox Business’ _Lou Dobbs Tonight_ on Friday, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said that “advanced age” might be the reason that former National Security Adviser John Bolton couldn’t access his Twitter account. Grisham was responding to allegations Bolton made Friday night about his Twitter account being blocked by the White House. She said the account he used while serving under the President was his personal account. Bolton tweeted on Friday that the White House refused to give him access to his account, alleging that they were afraid of what he would say. He stepped down from his position as National Security Adviser in September. > [](https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/1197946364669370368) “Sometimes, I’ll use my father as an example, somebody who is of an advanced age may not understand that all you have to do is contact Twitter and reset your password if you’ve forgotten it so I’ll just leave it at that,” Grisham told Dobbs. > [](https://twitter.com/LouDobbs/status/1198036006878040064) Bolton also tweeted Friday a call to address national security issues facing America, pointing to the upcoming 2020 elections. > [](https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/1198240749688676352) While responding to comments made by Dobbs about Bolton now seeming to speak out against the President, Grisham said she heard that Bolton has a book deal and has been charging some “high fees” to make speaking appearances. “I guess money can get you to do a lot of things,” Grisham said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5737993/advanced-age-john-bolton-twitter-account/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5737993/advanced-age-john-bolton-twitter-account/"},"headline":"White House Press Secretary Suggests 'Advanced Age' Kept John Bolton From Accessing His Twitter Account","datePublished":"2019-11-23T18:56:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:52:27.338Z","description":"Bolton tweeted that his Twitter account was blocked by the White House","url":"https://time.com/5737993/advanced-age-john-bolton-twitter-account/","keywords":["White House","Washington D.C.","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt646a5d3c435c9f53/698a06930116823bb697e96e/ap_19312614212652.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Josiah Bates","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/josiah-bates/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt646a5d3c435c9f53/698a06930116823bb697e96e/ap_19312614212652.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Stephanie Grisham, Donald Trump","caption":"Stephanie Grisham, Donald Trump","creditText":"Andrew Harnik—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5737993/advanced-age-john-bolton-twitter-account/","name":"White House Press Secretary Suggests 'Advanced Age' Kept John Bolton From Accessing His Twitter Account"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Trump Fires National Security Adviser John Bolton After They 'Disagreed Strongly'","description":"President Donald Trump said Tuesday he fired national security adviser John Bolton, citing strong disagreements on a number of policy issues.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/EymFD83K/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2019-09-10T16:37:54.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EymFD83K.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5737993/advanced-age-john-bolton-twitter-account/","duration":"PT57S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5737993/advanced-age-john-bolton-twitter-account/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```