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By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump stripped Secret Service protection on Tuesday from his former national security adviser, John Bolton, who became the target of an alleged Iranian murder plot after he served in the White House.
A spokesperson for Bolton said the Secret Service called Bolton on Monday night and said his security detail would end at noon the next day.
"We are not going to have security on people for the rest of their lives," Trump said on Tuesday as he confirmed the removal to reporters.
Bolton said he was "disappointed but not surprised that President Trump has decided to terminate the protection previously provided by the United States Secret Service" in a post on X.
The White House and the Secret Service declined to comment.
Bolton had harsh words for his former boss after he left his White House job. He called Trump "unfit to be president" in a new edition of his memoir in 2024 in which he also excoriated the Republican as an utterly self-interested man who would punish personal enemies and appease adversaries Russia and China.
Trump called Bolton a "dumb person" on Tuesday.
The United States charged a member of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps in 2022 with plotting to murder Bolton, who served as Trump's third national security adviser until he was dismissed in 2019.
The Justice Department alleged that Shahram Poursafi, also known as Mehdi Rezayi, 45, of Tehran, was likely motivated to kill Bolton in retaliation for the death of Qassem Soleimani, a commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps killed in a U.S. drone strike in January 2020.
Iran does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, and Poursafi remains at large.
Former President Joe Biden had extended Secret Service protection to Bolton in 2021 after the Iranian threat emerged, Bolton said, despite his criticism of the Democrat's national security policies.
Bolton has faced criticism over the years from human rights advocates over his admission of helping plan attempted coups in foreign countries and over his support for hawkish foreign policy decisions like the Iraq war.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; additional reporting by Kanishka Singh; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Alistair Bell and Jamie Freed)
