Trump revokes John Bolton’s Secret Service detail amid Iranian death threats: former national security advisor

President Donald Trump revoked former National Security Advisor 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 terminate the protection previously provided by the United States Secret Service,” Bolton said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital on Tuesday. “Notwithstanding my criticisms of President Biden’s national-security policies, he nonetheless made the decision to extend that protection to me in 2021. “

Bolton has faced threats from Iran going back years, including an alleged plot to assassinate him in 2021 and the Department of Justice subsequently charging a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for the plot in 2022. Trump had ousted Bolton from his first administration in 2019, and Biden had granted him a security detail in 2021. 

When asked by reporters on Tuesday why he stripped Bolton of his security clearance, Trump said, “Because I think that was enough time.”

“We’re not going to have security on people for the rest of their lives,” he said. “Why should we?”

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President Donald Trump, right, ousted John Bolton, left, from his first administration in 2019.  (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

“The Justice Department filed criminal charges against an Iranian Revolutionary Guard official in 2022 for attempting to hire a hit man to target me. That threat remains today, as also demonstrated by the recent arrest of someone trying to arrange for President Trump’s own assassination,” Bolton continued in his statement. “The American people can judge for themselves which President made the right call.”

The Iranian threats against Bolton were likely sparked by the January 2020 U.S. strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Force, the Department of Justice reported in 2022. 

Bolton served as Trump’s national security advisor between 2018 and 2019, before Trump ousted him because they “disagreed strongly” on policy issues. 

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“I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House,” Trump tweeted in 2019. “I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning. I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week.”

President Donald Trump revoked former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s Secret Service protection 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 has slammed Bolton, including claiming he would have sparked “World War Six,” and calling him “one of the dumbest people in Government” back in 2023. 

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Bolton also has taken his shots at Trump, claiming in a 2020 interview that Trump lacks “the competency to carry out the job.” 

John Bolton, pictured here in 2019 when serving as the U.S. national security advisor, has faced threats from Iran going back 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 has the competency to carry out the job. There isn’t really any guiding principle that I was able to discern, other than what’s good for Donald Trump’s reelection.”