It’s worth becoming familiar with Trump’s habit of stripping protective details from people who used to be officials during his first Presidential term. The New York Times caught the irony of the situation best when they wrote about Trump’s stripping of protection from John Bolton,
“‘We’re not going to have security on people for the rest of their lives. Why should we?’ said Mr. Trump, who as a president is guaranteed some form of protection for the rest of his life.”
Reading a bit more, we discover that the Biden Administration learned that Iran wants to kill Trump and a number of his prior national security team in revenge for having killed Iranian general Qaasim Suleimani in January 2020.
In response, the Biden Administration informed Trump (who was campaigning for re-election at the time) and increased the level of protection for Trump as well as the other former officials. When Trump was advised of the threat, he demanded still more protection – military protection – which is typically given only to Presidents who are in office.
Now that Trump is President and has his military protection, he is systematically stripping protection from the other officials who are under threat. These include,
- General Mark Milley (former Chief of Staff who had criticized Trump)
- John Bolton (former National Security Advisor who had criticized Trump)
- Mark Esper (former Secretary of Defense who had criticized Trump)
- Mike Pompeo (former Secretary of State who once criticized Trump mildly but has been generally supportive of Trump)
- Brian Hook (former Iranian specialist under Mike Pompeo who has never criticized Trump that we know of)
And, of course, he has also stripped protection from Anthony Fauci, former head of the NIAID, who has received numerous death threats from Americans.