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US President Donald Trump on Tuesday terminated John Bolton’s Secret Service clearance and protection.
As a former national security advisor in the the first Trump administration, Bolton has reportedly been the target of an alleged Iranian murder plot over here past few years.
Reuters quoted a spokesperson for Bolton as saying the Secret Service informed him that he would be stripped of his protection detail starting Tuesday.
Trump confirmed the news to reporters, saying: “We are not going to have security on people for the rest of their lives.”
Bolton responded to Trump’s decision, noting that he was not surprised but disappointed.
“Notwithstanding my criticisms of President Biden’s national security policies, he nonetheless decided to extend that protection to me in 2021.”
He said the justice department filed criminal charges against an Iranian guard official in 2022 for allegedly attempting to hire a hitman to take him out.
“That threat remains today, as also demonstrated by the recent arrest of someone trying to arrange for President Trump’s own assassination. The American people can judge for themselves which President made the right call,” Bolton said on X.
Bolton has been among the rare past and present US figures who support the holding of a referendum of self-determination to end the dispute over Western Sahara – a demand that has been long sought by pro-Polisario activists.
Bolon has also been a vocal critic of MINURSO, the UN peacekeeping mission in the Sahara.
In his 2008 memoirs, “Surrender is not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations,” he lambasted the UN operation for dialing “in its central mission to conduct a referendum and was now actually an obstacle to Morocco and Algeria dealing with each other.”
He also advocated for the end of the UN mission as “it was clear that Morocco had no intention of ever allowing a referendum.”
