President Trump returned to the Oval Office on Monday and revoked security clearances of the 51 national security professionals (including former NSA and CIA Director Michael Hayden) who signed a letter in October 2020 warning media outlets that the Hunter Biden laptop story “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Many had become loud critics of Trump and endorsed Kamala Harris for president.
Trump also made a decision to revoke security protection for his former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and former top aide Brian Hook, who reportedly continue to face threats from Iran because of actions they took on Mr. Trump’s behalf during his first administration.
Pompeo endorsed Trump in 2024, and was constant critic of President Biden.
The New York Times reported that Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had “terse remarks” regarding Trump’s decision to revoke security for his former Secretary of State, who also served as CIA Director.
Rounds said of Pompeo: “We know that there have been known threats made by the government of Iran against him. I don’t know what the recommendations were that were given to the president as to why he would take the security item away.”
As seen below, on Wednesday, Pompeo publicly congratulated Trump’s new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and wrote of the new cabinet member: “the country is safer with his leadership.”
Secretary of State Rubio is off to a great start.
— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) January 22, 2025
And the country is safer with his leadership. https://t.co/gbRU7YIoyd
Trump mentioned Pompeo in his interview with Sean Hannity on Wednesday when he said he was going to sign executive orders to release the FBI files on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Trump promised in his first term to release the files but (according to Trump) was discouraged from doing so by Pompeo.
Note: Rounds has endorsed all of Trump’s cabinet picks for his second administration including Kash Patel (FBI Director), John Ratcliffe (CIA Director), Tulsi Gabbard for National Intelligence director, and Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.
Rounds said of Hegseth: “he’s ready to get our military focused on lethality again.”
As nominee for Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard will have to testify in front of the Intelligence committee in both an open and a closed hearing. We had an excellent first meeting this week and I look forward to working with her as she prepares for these hearings. pic.twitter.com/ucCNCDI6hu
— Senator Mike Rounds (@SenatorRounds) December 11, 2024
Note: Rounds endorsed Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) when he ran for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination and compared Scott to Ronald Reagan, saying he believes “Scott is a leader who can unite the country.”
When Scott dropped out of the race in December 2023, Rounds (like Scott) endorsed Trump. Rounds said at the time that the election is a “binary choice” and that Trump is “the best choice of the two choices that we have got.”
