Two Top Republicans Ask Trump to Rethink a Move

Two top Republican senators are questioning President Trump's decision to revoke the federal protection of three former advisers, saying it could make current aides think twice about their own duties, reports the New York Times. Tom Cotton and Lindsey Graham, both allies of the president, made their pitch on the Sunday talk shows.

• The three: Trump yanked security details for John Bolton (his former national security adviser), Mike Pompeo (his former secretary of state), and Brian Hook (a former State Department official). All have been threatened by Iran, after Trump ordered the 2020 strike that killed a top Iranian commander, per USA Today.

• Cotton: "I would encourage the president to revisit the decision," said Cotton, chair of the intelligence committee, on Fox News Sunday. The threat remains real, he said, adding that aides now working on policy regarding Iran, China, North Korea, or drug cartels in Mexico "might hesitate if they're in office to give him the advice he needs or carry out the policies that he decides upon." It also might hurt in the recruitment of "good people," he said, per the AP.
• Graham: He singled out the example of Bolton, who has since become a fierce critic of Trump. "Whether you like John Bolton or not, that's not the question for me," he said on CNN's State of the Union. "We need to make sure that if you serve in our government and you take on a foreign power at the request of the administration that we do not leave you hanging."

(More Tom Cotton stories.)