The Trump administration has pulled the security detail from former Trump CIA director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as well as former Trump special envoy on Iran Brian Hook.
CBS has learned that Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed off on the removal of the Diplomatic Security detail, according to a source familiar.
The Diplomatic Security detail — which falls under the State Department — was pulled from the former officials on Wednesday night according to three sources familiar with the situation.
Asked about it while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, President Trump said “when you have protection you can’t have it for the rest of your life—do you want to have a large detail of people guarding people for the rest of their lives? I mean, there’s risks to everything.”
CBS has previously reported that diplomatic security protection for the two former officials cost taxpayers roughly $2 million per month but had been repeatedly renewed by then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken in light of the ongoing threats from the Iranian regime against officials who had served during Mr. Trump’s first administration. There are other former officials who continue to face a threat from Iran and are provided U.S.-taxpayer funded security by other agencies. Those individuals include former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Ret. Gen. Mark Milley and Frank McKenzie, CENTCOM Gen (Ret.) The Biden administration did not explain why it pulled protection off of former Trump national security adviser Robert O’Brien, who also faced threats.
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During the 2024 presidential campaign, former President Joe Biden’s national security counsel passed word publicly and privately to Iran that any assassination attempt would be interpreted as an act of war. There had been ongoing threats to then-candidate Trump by the Iranian regime in addition to the officials who served under him.
It is not clear now whether the Trump administration is adopting that same “act of war” policy or whether there is any new intelligence that would suggest there is no longer a threat posed by Iran. One source indicated “resource constraints” were a consideration in the decision this week to pull off the round the clock protection.
Unlike former national security adviser John Bolton, Pompeo and Hook had been loyal to Trump and were not public critics of him. Hook has even done work on the transition between the two administrations during the 2024 campaign period. Pompeo and Hook had worked with the first trump administration on the maximum pressure campaign against Iran, as were serving at the time of Qassem Soleimani’s killing in a drone strike ordered by Mr. Trump in his first term.
At this hour, neither Diplomatic Security nor the State Department have provided a response to the CBS request for comment.
The New York Times was first to report the news about Pompeo and Hook.
Camilla Schick contributed reporting.
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