Bari Weiss’s Free Press Accuses Trump of Making America ‘Weaker’ And ‘Emboldening’ Iran in Scathing Editorial
Bari Weiss’s The Free Press called out President Donald Trump for pulling security details for former officials in a scathing editorial.
In an article from the editors of Free Press, Trump was accused of making Iran stronger and the United States weaker by pulling security services for people like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo despite threats from Iran. As the post noted, a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard was charged in 2022 for plotting to assassinate Bolton, a former national security advisor for Trump.
Trump’s moves to “weaken” America and “embolden” Iran, the Free Press argued, adding he was “disincentivizing people from public service.”
According to The Free Press:
Let’s spell that out one more time: Former Trump officials have required 24/7 protection because one of America’s sworn enemies is trying to murder them as retaliation for one of the biggest foreign policy wins of the first Trump term. Now, presumably because those officials haven’t been as obsequious as Trump would have liked in recent years, the president has said: You’re on your own.
Hanging these men out to dry is a petty, small-minded decision. But it isn’t just that. It also does real harm to American interests. A country that sees its adversaries plotting violence against top officials and effectively says, “Go right ahead,” is a country encouraging more violence on our own soil.
A former US security official called Trump’s actions “vindictive.”
“Iranians will interpret this to mean it is open season on former officials inside of our borders,” the former official said.
“Last year, Trump promised he would blow Iran “to smithereens” if it ever harmed an American presidential candidate. But pulling security away from Americans who need it, in a move seemingly motivated by personal animosity, he leaves America weaker and Tehran emboldened,” The Free Press’s editorial argued. “The president calls his whole agenda, ‘America First.’ This move is just the opposite.”
“When you have protection, you can’t have it for the rest of your life,” Trump told press this week about pulling security details. “There’s risks to everything.”
