Former US national security advisor John Bolton, the target of an alleged Iranian assassination plot, said Tuesday that President Donald Trump has withdrawn his Secret Service protection.
Defending his decision to reporters, Trump stated, “I think there was enough time. We take a job, you take a job, you want to do a job, we’re not going to have security on people for the rest of their lives. Why should we?”
He also accused Bolton of leading the US into the 2003 US invasion of Iraq while serving under George W. Bush.
“He’s the one that got us involved, along with Cheney and a couple of others, convinced Bush, which was a terrible decision, to blow up the Middle East,” he said.
“We blew up the Middle East and we left.” He added, “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, you can’t have that for life.”
Bolton, who served in the White House during Trump’s first term but has since become an outspoken critic, said he was “disappointed but not surprised” by the move.
Posting on X, he noted that the Justice Department filed criminal charges against an Iranian Revolutionary Guard official in 2022 for “attempting to hire a hit man to target me.”
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…
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) January 21, 2025
“That threat remains today, as also demonstrated by the recent arrest of someone trying to arrange for President Trump’s own assassination,” he said.
Bolton said that although he was a critic of former Democratic president Joe Biden’s national security policies, “he nonetheless made the decision to extend (Secret Service) protection to me in 2021.”
“The American people can judge for themselves which President made the right call,” he added.
Trump also revoked Bolton’s security clearance on Monday, accusing him of revealing “sensitive information drawn from his time in government” in a critical memoir he published in 2020.
The Justice Department attempted to stop publication of the book claiming Bolton needed to wait for the White House to review whether it contained classified information.
The State Department has announced a $20 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the alleged Iranian mastermind behind the plot to assassinate Bolton, who is also a former US ambassador to the United Nations.
