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Trump terminates John Bolton's Secret Service detail within hours of taking office, ‘Disappointed but not surprised…’
John Bolton has faced threats from Iran, and there was also an alleged plot to assassinate him in 2021.
Donald Trump terminated the Secret Service detail assigned to his former national security adviser John Bolton hours after being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, Bolton told CNN. Bolton has faced threats from Iran, and there was also an alleged plot to assassinate him in 2021. In 2022, the Department of Justice charged a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for the plot.
Bolton had been ousted from Trump’s first administration in 2019. In 2021, Joe Biden had granted him a security detail.
‘Disappointed but not surprised’
Bonton addressed Trump’s move in a statement on X. “I am disappointed but not surprised that President Trump has decided to terminate the protection previously provided by the United States Secret Service. Notwithstanding my criticisms of President Biden's national-security policies, he nonetheless made the decision to extend that protection to me in 2021,” he wrote.
“The Justice Department filed criminal charges against an Iranian Revolutionary Guard official in 2022 for attempting to hire a hit man to target me. That threat remains today, as also demonstrated by the recent arrest of someone trying to arrange for President Trump's own assassination. The American people can judge for themselves which President made the right call,” Bolton added.
Trump was asked by reporters on Tuesday, January 21, why he decided to strip Bolton of his security clearance, to which the president reportedly replied, "Because I think that was enough time."
"We’re not going to have security on people for the rest of their lives," he added. "Why should we?"
The Department of Justice reported in 2022 that the Iranian threats against Bolton may have been sparked by the January 2020 US strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Force. Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security advisor between 2018 and 2019, was ousted because he and Trump "disagreed strongly" on policy issues.
"I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House," Trump wrote on X (then Twitter) in 2019. "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."
Trump criticised Bolton on various occasions in the years that followed, claiming he would have sparked "World War Six.” Trump also called Bolton "one of the dumbest people in Government" in 2023.
