Trump Strips Security Detail From Pompeo, Bolton Two Days Into Term, Identifies Active Iranian Assassination Plots As Insufficient Reason To Continue Protecting Former Officials

WASHINGTON. President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday revoked the State Department-funded security details that had been protecting former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, his former Iran envoy Brian Hook, and former National Security Adviser John Bolton, freeing the federal government from the recurring expense of keeping alive three former officials whom the Islamic Republic of Iran has, in writing and on the public record, expressed a sustained interest in killing.

The protective details, established by prior administrations and continued under President Biden, had been authorized in response to specific, documented Iranian threats arising from the January 2020 American drone strike that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an action ordered by Mr. Trump himself. The Department of Justice had previously filed federal charges against Iranian nationals accused of plotting to assassinate Mr. Bolton on U.S. soil, and the FBI had publicly confirmed surveillance of Iranian threats against Mr. Pompeo through the final weeks of the Biden administration.

The President, asked about the revocations, said that no former official could expect government security "for the rest of your life," identifying as the central principle of his Iran policy the question of whether American taxpayers should continue paying to prevent the murder of the people who had carried out his prior Iran policy.

A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to clarify the policy, said the President's view was that any former official who continued to fear an Iranian attempt on his life remained free to hire private security at his own expense, an option the official noted was available equally to former officials who had not personally helped order the killing of an Iranian general at the President's specific written direction.

The decision was paired with the revocation of Mr. Bolton's federal security clearance and was followed within days by additional revocations affecting other named former officials. The Justice Department, asked whether the still-active Iranian threat assessments would be transmitted to the now-unprotected former officials so they might privately plan around them, declined to comment on the operational details of an arrangement it described as no longer the federal government's concern.

At press time, Mr. Bolton had retained a private firm at his own expense, and Iran had filed no formal objection to the new arrangement.