Republican Senators Call on Trump to Rethink Revoked Security Details

Two Republican Senate allies of President Trump urged him on Sunday to rethink his decision to strip security details from former advisers who have been targeted by Iran, saying the move could chill his current aides from doing their jobs effectively.

Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas and the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, spoke after Mr. Trump abruptly halted government security protection for three officials from his first time who were involved in his Iran policy and have remained under threat.

One of them, John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump’s third national security adviser, has been a vocal critic of Mr. Trump since departing the administration in 2019. The other two, his former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and another former top State Department official, Brian Hook, have been supportive of Mr. Trump. His decision to pull their details surprised and alarmed some of the president’s allies.

“I 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,” Mr. Cotton said on Fox News. He said he had reviewed current intelligence and that the threats remained real.

Mr. Cotton suggested that those going to work now for Mr. Trump on Iran, China, North Korea or Mexican drug cartels “might hesitate to do so, or they might hesitate if they’re in office to give him the advice he needs or carry out the policies that he decides upon.”

Mr. Bolton, Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Hook were involved in an aggressive posture against Iran that included the drone strike that killed the powerful military commander Qassim Suleimani in 2020. Iran has sought to retaliate against Mr. Trump as well as those officials ever since, according to the intelligence community.