Trump Cancels John Bolton’s Secret Service Details Amid Iranian Death Threats: Former National Security Adviser
President Donald Trump has lifted former national security adviser John Bolton’s Secret Service protection after his inauguration as the 47th president on Monday, Bolton told Fox News Digital.
“I am disappointed, but not surprised, that President Trump has decided to end the protections previously provided by the United States Secret Service,” Bolton said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday. “Regardless of my criticisms of President Biden’s national security policies, he still made the decision to grant me that protection in 2021.”
Bolton has faced threats from Iran for years, including an alleged plot to assassinate him in 2021 and the Justice Department subsequently charging a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with a plot in 2022. Trump kicked Bolton out of his first administration in 2019, and Biden appointed him security detail 2021.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House about Bolton’s claim, but did not immediately hear back.
President Donald Trump, right, removed John Bolton, left, from his first administration in 2019. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
“The Ministry of Justice filed a criminal complaint against Mr Iranian Revolutionary Guards official 2022 for trying to hire an assassin to attack me. That threat still exists today, as also demonstrated by the recent arrest of someone who tried to arrange the assassination of President Trump himself,” Bolton continued in his statement. “The American people can judge for themselves which president made the right choice.”
Iran’s threats to Bolton were likely prompted by the January 2020 US strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s Quds Force, the Justice Department reported in 2022.
Bolton served as Trump’s national security adviser adviser between 2018 and 2019, before Trump fired him because they “strongly disagreed” on policy issues.
“I notified John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed in the White House,” Trump tweeted in 2019. “I strongly disagreed with many of his proposals, as did others in the administration, and therefore asked John for his resignation, which I received this morning . Many thanks to John for his service. Next week I will appoint a new national security adviser.
President Donald Trump has revoked the Secret Service protection of former national security adviser John Bolton after his inauguration as the 47th president on Jan. 20, 2025, Bolton said. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
In the following years, Trump repeatedly criticized Bolton, including claims that he would cause “World War Six” and calling him “one of the dumbest people in government” in 2023.
Bolton also took shots at Trump, claiming in a 2020 interview that Trump lacked the “competence to do the job.”
John Bolton, shown here in 2019 while serving as US national security adviser, has faced threats from Iran for years, including an alleged plot to assassinate him in 2021. (STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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“I don’t think he’s fit for office,” Bolton said in 2020. “I don’t think he’s competent to do the job. There’s really no guiding principle that I’ve been able to discern, other than it’s good for re-electing Donald Trump.”
