By New York Post (Opinion) | Created at 2025-01-24 23:33:33 | Updated at 2025-01-26 06:42:17
1 day ago
Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addressing a press conference at the Department of State in Washington.
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Whoever steered President Trump into removing of the security teams protecting former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and others facing Iranian death threats was way off-base — and the prez should reverse that dangerous call at once.
Pompeo tops Tehran’s hit list for his part in taking out Iranian Gen. Qassem Suleimani in January 2020, a massive strategic win for Trump in his first term.
The threats are neither hypothetical nor vague: In 2022, Supreme Leader (and Grand Ayatollah) Ali Khamenei’s website published the video “Revenge is definite” that showed animated versions of Pompeo and Trump being scoped out by a remote weapon.
Former National Security Adviser John Bolton and ex-Pompeo aide Brian Hook have also been threatened by the mullahs for their roles in the Soleimani operation — and just got their security yanked, too.
Pompeo and (especially) Bolton have aired grievances against Trump, but that doesn’t change the fact that they crossed Iran in the course of their jobs of working for him and the nation.
It’s not just that this looks like petty, vindictive retaliation: Does he want his new national-security team making policy while fearing they won’t get protection if they do something that earns them a spot on Tehran’s target list?
And not only did Trump yank protection; his team publicized it, all but giving Iran a green-light.
Trump waved off the issue by insisting, “You can’t have [protection] for the rest of your life.”
Sorry, Iran’s target lists don’t expire quickly: Salman Rushdie suffered a near-fatal attack decades after the fatwa targeting him came down.
The Biden team put the security in place in 2021, and nothing suggests the threat has lessened — or that Trump was even fully briefed on the situation before pulling the protection.
Leaving these men exposed is all the more egregious because Trump knows it’s wrong: Last year, he pressed the Biden administration to give then-candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Secret Service protection on the campaign trail, calling it the “right thing to do.”
Plus, Trump himself has been on the wrong end of an assassin’s scope, twice; he should understand better than anyone how important adequate protection is when you’re being targeted.
Worse, this public move can only encourage Iran to mount operations against the newly vulnerable now, with an eye on displaying its power and weakening Trump.
The instinct to get even runs deep in MAGA-world, but any salivating adviser telling Trump this makes sense is a fool: Should any of these people suffer an attack, the prez will get blamed — and rightly so.
Do the right thing, Mr. President: Put the protective details back in place — now.
