President Donald Trump withdraws the security team of his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who received continued protection due to threats from Iran after adopting a hard-line policy toward the country during Trump’s first administration, they told CNN three sources familiar with the measure.
The decision to remove Pompeo from his department security team, first reported by The New York Times, comes shortly after Trump terminated the Secret Service team that was assigned to his former national security adviser John Bolton.
THE CNN contacted Pompeo. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
When Trump was asked by reporters on Thursday about withdrawing security from former officers, he declared: “Once you have protection, you can’t have it for the rest of your life.”
Adding: “You don’t want a large detachment of people protecting others for the rest of their lives. I mean, there are risks to everything.”
Pompeo was deeply involved in shaping the first Republican administration’s policy toward Iran and played a role in ordering Trump to assassinate top Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani in early 2020.
The Justice Department said the Iranian government sought revenge against senior officials of the new president who were involved in the assassination, including Pompeo and Bolton, both Iran hawks.
The two officials were targets of a foiled Iranian assassination plot, according to the Justice Department.
A former intelligence official told CNN that they were alarmed by the movements.
“Someone is going to be killed, there is a serious and credible Iranian threat against Pompeo and Bolton,” they said.
Another former national security official noted that the Republican’s decision appeared to be motivated by “pure spite and pettiness and that the president hopes that the Iranians don’t hurt any of these people.”
Trump himself remains a target of Iran due to the plot to kill Soleimani.
His team requested increased security last summer after receiving information from the Biden administration that Iran was still actively plotting to kill him.
This content was originally published in Trump withdraws security from former officials threatened by Iran on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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