On his first day in office, President Trump not only revoked the security clearance of his former National Security Adviser John Bolton, but also his U.S. Secret Service protection.
This was not the first time Trump had stripped the advisor turned critic of the secret service detail. In September 2019, after Trump ousted Bolton from his position, he suspended the protection within hours. Bolton was subsequently granted security by former President Joe Biden.
In a statement to USA TODAY, Bolton said he was “disappointed but not surprised” that Trump had decided to terminate the protection.
“Notwithstanding my criticisms of President Biden’s national-security policies, he nonetheless made the decision to extend that protection to me in 2021. “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 said that threat “remains today,” pointing to an Iranian plot to assassinate Trump before the 2024 election, which was revealed by Manhattan federal prosecutors in November.
“The American people can judge for themselves which President made the right call,” Bolton said.
Bolton received a call Monday night and was informed that his Secret Service protection would end at noon on Tuesday, according to his office.
As part of a torrent of executive orders issued on his first day, Trump also revoked the security clearance of 51 former intelligence officials and Bolton for allegedly coordinating with the 2020 Biden campaign by signing a letter to discredit emails found on a laptop owned by Hunter Biden.
“Signatories of the letter falsely suggested that the news story was part of a Russian disinformation campaign,” the executive order said.
According to documents obtained by CBS’s “60 Minutes” through a Freedom of Information Act request with the Secret Service, the cost of protecting two former Trump national security advisers, including Bolton, was $12,280,324 for one year.
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House Correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal
