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President Donald Trump has yanked his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s security detail despite ongoing assassination threats from Iran. The New York Times reported Thursday that Trump nixed security details for Pompeo and another former Trump State Department official, Brian Hook.

The action comes after Trump stripped his former National Security Advisor John Bolton of his Secret Service protection and lopped him in with the intelligence officials who said Hunter Biden’s laptop was possibly Russian disinformation. Trump is trying to have that entire group – along with Bolton – stripped of their security clearances.

While Bolton has been an outspoken critic of Trump – publishing a tell-all book ahead of the 2020 election, which Trump lost – Pompeo’s relationship with his ex-boss is more complicated. While the former secretary of State and CIA director flirted with a 2024 presidential bid, he ultimately decided against challenging Trump.

He did, however, take a few veiled jabs at his ex-boss during his Conservative Political Action Conference appearance in March of 2023. ‘We can’t become the left, following celebrity leaders with their own brand of identity politics, those with fragile egos who refuse to acknowledge reality,’ Pompeo said at the time.

Pompeo eventually backed Trump, appearing on the campaign trail to support him in the days ahead of the election – but that seemingly wasn’t enough. Trump’s longtime political adviser Roger Stone wrote on his website three days after the president’s election win an entire post on ‘ Why President Trump Cannot Trust Mike Pompeo .’

Stone criticized Pompeo for being ‘relatively quiet throughout the presidential season.’ Stone also pointed out that before ‘it became obvious that Trump was going to rise back into prominence and yet again win the presidency, Pompeo was creating distance and flirting with a potential presidential run of his own.’

The longtime Trump political adviser pointed a finger at Pompeo’s CPAC remarks. ‘Pompeo even publicly supported Jack Smith’s sham investigation of Trump over the possession of alleged classified documents when it looked like Trump might be jailed,’ Stone said.

Stone also accused Pompeo of hiring a slew of ‘Never Trumpers’ to work under him. ‘If Pompeo is placed into the next Trump administration, his history shows he would promote the hegemony of the deep state rather than an authentic America First agenda,’ Stone argued. Trump’s negative focus on Pompeo became apparent during his Wednesday sit-down with Sean Hannity.

He accused Pompeo of talking him into not releasing the President John F. Kennedy assassination files. ‘I was actually asked by Mike Pompeo, secretary of State, not to, and I felt he knew something that maybe, you know, when he asked you not to, you sort of say “why?” and he felt that it was not a good time to release them,’ Trump said. Trump said at the time he respected Pompeo and the others as ‘professionals.’ ‘But I’m going to release them immediately,’ Trump said, adding ‘we’re looking at it right now.’

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