Trump and John Bolton are fighting over whether he was fired or resigned

REUTERS/Leah Millis

President Donald Trump listens as his National Security Adviser John Bolton speaks during a presidential memorandum signing for the "Women's Global Development and Prosperity" initiative in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 7, 2019.

• President Donald Trump and John Bolton on Tuesday offered conflicting narratives on the circumstances of his ousting as national security adviser.
• Trump claimed he asked Bolton for his resignation, but Bolton said that "never" happened.
• Meanwhile, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told Insider, "The President asked that Bolton's resignation be given to him this morning. It was."
• Similarly, after Bolton began pushing back on the notion he was fired, claiming instead that he'd offered to resign, a White House official told a Washington Post reporter that Bolton was "indeed fired."
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Almost as soon as President Donald Trump announced he'd dismissed National Security Adviser John Bolton, there were conflicting accounts between the two men on the nature of Bolton's ousting.

Trump on Tuesday took to Twitter to announce he'd let Bolton go, claiming he asked for the national security adviser's resignation.

Trump tweeted, "I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning. I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week."

But Bolton quickly dismissed this assertion, and claimed he'd offered to resign the night before. He said Trump "never" asked him for his resignation.

"I offered to resign last night. He never asked for it, directly or indirectly. I slept on it, and resigned this morning," Bolton told NBC's Peter Alexander.

Similarly, in a tweet Bolton said, "I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, 'Let's talk about it tomorrow.'"

But the White House is insisting he was fired.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told Insider, "The President asked that Bolton's resignation be given to him this morning. It was."

Similarly, a White House official told Washington Post reporter Robert Costa that "Bolton was indeed fired" and his "resignation was requested."

Read more: Trump fires National Security Adviser John Bolton, saying he 'disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions'

On Tuesday morning, there were virtually no signs that Bolton would be dismissed.

The White House at 10:55 am ET sent out a press guidance via email that had Bolton on the schedule to speak on camera with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at 1:30 pm ET. Roughly an hour later, the president tweeted that he'd fired Bolton.

Grisham told Insider, "The timing of the guidance has nothing to do with anything, the staff who distribute that guidance were not aware."

Bolton is the latest in a long line of departures from the White House, and his replacement will be Trump's fourth national security adviser thus far.