The US President, Donald Trump, has reportedly lifted the security measures for former high-ranking officials Mike Pompeo, John Bolton and Brian Hook, who, according to reports, have received “credible death threats” from Iran. Trump does not see himself as responsible for the security of those he has stripped of state-provided protection. “I can give them a few good numbers of very good security people. They can hire their own security personnel. They have all made a lot of money” Trump said at a press conference in North Carolina.
Trump had distanced himself from Pompeo in the lead-up to his recent election win, publicly stating that his former Secretary of State would not play a role in his new administration. In a social media post, Trump this week fired Hook from his position on the board of the Wilson Center, a think tank, which Trump had appointed. Trump has also stripped Dr. Anthony Fauci, a US immunologist, of his state-provided security detail, saying “Fauci has made a lot of money” in response.
In a report to Congress in March 2022, the State Department stated that it spends over two million dollars a month to provide around-the-clock security for Pompeo, Hook and Bolton.
Trump’s relationship with Bolton, his former National Security Adviser, had already frayed before the end of his first term. Bolton later wrote a book, the publication of which the White House had attempted to prevent, citing that it contained information on national security.
According to reports from the US intelligence agency, Pompeo and Bolton were targeted by Iranian plots due to their involvement in the killing of Iranian top general Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis at the Baghdad airport in January 2020.
Washington accused an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps member of planning the murder of Bolton in 2022. Iranian authorities had promised revenge after Trump had ordered the drone strike that killed Soleimani.