President Donald Trump explained Tuesday why he signed an executive order revoking security clearance for dozens of intelligence officials, including his former National Security Adviser John Bolton, questioning why some government officials should have such clearances after they no longer are employed.
"I think there was enough time," Trump said, according to The Hill. "We take a job, you take a job, you want to do a job, we're not going to have security on people for the rest of their lives. Why should we?"
Trump's executive order focused on 51 intelligence officials who signed a letter claiming before the 2020 election that a New York Post story on Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation. Bolton, who has been a fervent critic of Trump, wasn't among the signatories, but the president still had choice words for him.
"I thought he was a very dumb person, but I used him well because every time people saw me come into a meeting with John Bolton standing behind me, they thought that he'd attack them because he was a warmonger," Trump said, according to The Hill.
Bolton, who told Newsmax on Jan. 17 that he will be proven right that Trump is just an aberration in American politics, said Trump also canceled his security detail. The Iranian government reportedly has been seeking revenge against senior officials in Trump's first administration for the assassination of Gen. Qasem Soleimani on Trump's orders in 2020, even though Bolton had left the administration by then.
Trump initially terminated the security detail in 2019 after he fired Bolton, but former President Joe Biden restored it after he took office.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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