WASHINGTON — President Trump yanked his former national security adviser John Bolton’s Secret Service protective detail Tuesday — one day after canceling Bolton’s security clearance citing a 2020 tell-all book.
“We’re not gonna have security on people for the rest of their lives. Why should we?” the 47th and 45th president said of Bolton, 76, who worked for Trump during his first term in 2018 and 2019.
“I thought he was a very dumb person, but I used him well,” Trump, 78, told reporters at a White House event unveiling a $500 billion artificial intelligence initiative.
“Every time people saw me come into a meeting with John Bolton standing behind me, they thought that he’d attack them because he was a warmonger.”
Trump blasted Bolton’s role in launching the Iraq War in 2003, saying, “We got nothing out of it except a lot of death. We killed a lot of people, and John Bolton was one of those guys — a stupid guy.”
“But no,” Trump added, “you can’t have that for life. You shouldn’t expect it for life.”
Bolton revealed the move earlier Tuesday in an X post, writing: “I am disappointed but not surprised that President Trump has decided to terminate the protection previously provided by the United States Secret Service.”
Bolton, a longtime advocate of regime change in Iran, received the detail from then-President Joe Biden in 2021 in response to Tehran plotting to assassinate the former US ambassador to the United Nations.
“Notwithstanding my criticisms of President Biden’s national-security policies, he nonetheless made the decision to extend that protection to me in 2021,” Bolton tweeted.
“The Justice Department filed criminal charges against an Iranian Revolutionary Guard official in 2022 for attempting to hire a hit man to target me.”
Bolton added, “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.”
Presidents are able to designate Secret Service protectees at will.
The Justice Department said in 2022 that an Iranian agent “attempted to pay individuals in the United States $300,000” to whack Bolton, “likely in retaliation” for the January 2020 US airstrike that killed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani.
Soleimani’s death occurred almost four months after Trump fired Bolton, whose book was published in June 2020, outraging Trump and prompting the Justice Department to sue Bolton and open a grand jury review of whether he improperly disclosed sensitive information.
Both actions were dropped by Biden nominees.
Trump yanked Bolton’s security clearance Monday, the first day of his second term, as well as clearances held by 49 living former intelligence agency officials who signed an October 2020 letter suggesting that the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop were Russian disinformation intended to discredit his father.
Bolton’s book “was rife with sensitive information drawn from his time in government. The memoir’s reckless treatment of sensitive information undermined the ability of future presidents to request and obtain candid advice on matters of national security from their staff,” Trump’s Monday order said.
“Publication also created a grave risk that classified material was publicly exposed.”
The Secret Service declined to comment.
