In his inaugural address on Monday, President Donald Trump rightly pledged to “bring back free speech to America.” Trump continued, “Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents, something I know something about. We will not allow that to happen. It will not happen again. Under my leadership, we will restore fair, equal, and impartial justice under the Constitution and the rule of law.”
One day later, the president broke his word. In removing a Secret Service protective detail from former national security adviser John Bolton, Trump has shown he is absolutely willing to persecute political opponents in response to their free speech. Think about what message Trump is sending here. Namely, that if you pursue public service but then criticize a powerful American, you must be aware that said powerful American might allow his ego to enable a foreign adversary’s murderous ambitions against you. This is a distinctly un-American form of governance.
In a statement to X on Tuesday, Bolton stated he was “disappointed but not surprised that President Trump has decided to terminate the protection previously provided by the United States Secret Service. Notwithstanding my criticisms of President Biden’s national-security policies, he nonetheless made the decision to extend that protection to me in 2021.” Bolton then outlined the continuing assassination threat he faces from Iran.
It’s clear that Trump is punishing Bolton for his free speech in admittedly ardent criticism of the president since late 2019. And yet this response to Bolton’s free speech, endangering his life and that of his family, isn’t exactly an act of presidential statesmanship. The threat to Bolton from Iran remains a very real one, a reality underlined by the large Secret Service detail that was provided to Bolton until Monday. That detail rivaled the size of those that are afforded to Trump’s children, reflecting high-threat assessments by the Secret Service’s Protective Intelligence Division. Nor is the threat to Bolton simply an aspirational one.
In March 2022, the Washington Examiner was the first to report on how the Biden administration was sitting on an indictment against Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers responsible for plotting to kill Bolton. While an indictment was later issued, that assassination plot was advanced in nature. Other plots have followed. Moreover, the reason Bolton is being targeted by Iran is the same reason that Trump is being targeted by Iran: in retaliation for the January 2020 U.S. killing of the Guard’s Quds Force commander, Qassem Soleimani.
While Bolton was no longer serving as Trump’s national security adviser at the time of that attack, Iran blames him for it. The Washington Examiner understands that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has personally directed the Quds Force and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security to kill either Trump, Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien, former Iran czar Brian Hook, or another senior Trump administration official in order to avenge Soleimani.
And while it’s true that Secret Service and Diplomatic Security Service protective resources have been heavily strained by Iran-related threats, Khamenei’s desire for vengeance is neither flippant nor fleeting. Rather, it reflects his theologically vested imperative to secure bloody retribution for what he perceives as Soleimani’s premature martyrdom. Khamenei regards Soleimani as an heir to the revered Shia warrior Husayn ibn Ali — a man whose killing cannot go unanswered without dishonoring God. In turn, deterring future Iranian assassination threats will require much more than Trump’s likely dangled threat of a few cruise missiles hitting Tehran. As reflected by his efforts to kill Trump, then a former U.S. president, Khamenei will bear great pain to avenge Soleimani.
In turn, pulling necessary security from someone whose only actual crime was to criticize the now-incumbent president isn’t simply hypocritical in terms of Trump’s free speech rhetoric, but it’s petulant and unpatriotic. There is a difference, after all, between this action and Trump’s revocation of Bolton’s security clearance in response to sensitive information he divulged in his 2020 book, The Room Where It Happened.
Just as there is a legitimate argument that Trump was justified in revoking the security clearances of the 51 former intelligence officers who signed a pre-2020 presidential election letter stating that Hunter Biden’s discovered laptop bore the hallmarks of a Russian intelligence operation, revocation of a security clearance is not the same thing as revocation of personal security. Security clearances are a privilege, not a right. And perceived politicization of the intelligence community, even if involving former officials, undermines public trust in that most important institution. Former intelligence officers should be able to say whatever they want, but they should not expect their partisan speech to coalesce with privileged national security access.
In contrast, no American deserves to be threatened for the conduct of otherwise lawful government service (as in Bolton’s case with Iran) or lawful if deeply misguided speech (as with the Hunter Biden letter signatories). This is a sacred expectation of the Constitution and the First Amendment — a constitution Trump just swore once again to uphold.
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Now essentially opening the door for Iran to target Bolton, Trump neither broadcasts American greatness nor a commitment to the First Amendment. Instead, he suggests that what matters most is not the security of Americans but rather the security of his ego.
He should reconsider this poor decision.
