President Donald Trump’s decision to terminate security protection for former administration officials turned critics John Bolton, Brian Hook and Mike Pompeo is one early decision that he “would be wise to reverse,” the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board argued.
In a stinging editorial out Monday, the editorial board applauded Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) for publicly bashing Trump’s revoking of security for his former advisers – and lobbed their own scorn at the president’s decision.
Cotton, who chairs the Intelligence Committee, told Fox News on Sunday that he “would encourage the President to revisit the decision for those people who are being targeted by Iran, as the President was targeted for assassination by Iran.”
The MAGA lawmaker went on to detail the reasons he believes all three former officials who were stripped of their security deserve it to be reinstated. Chief among them was Iran’s “real” plot for “vengeance against all of these people” that a review of the intelligence left him to conclude.
“Excellent points all,” the editorial board wrote Monday. “Mr. Trump hasn’t explained his denial of security except to say it can’t last forever. But it should last as long as there are real threats to those who did their duty and are marked for death by an adversary because of it.”
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The board also pointed out that Cotton argued “It’s not just about these men who helped President Trump carry out his policy in his first term. It’s about their family and friends, innocent bystanders every time they’re in public. It’s also about the President being able to get good people and get good advice.”
The board added that “President Trump doesn’t like to admit a mistake, but sometimes he changes his mind.”
Trump’s axing of security came a day after his inauguration, saying Bolton, Pompeo and Hooks – who served in his last administration as national security adviser, secretary of state and a top State Department aide, respectively – “were no longer entitled to costly Secret Service details.”
They have all been targeted by alleged assassination plots by Iranian nationals for the assassination hit Trump ordered in 2020 on Qassem Soleimani.
