Treasury Secretary Bessent moves to a military base after Iranian threats against his life, sources tell the New York Times

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has left his home in the wider Washington area and now lives on a military base, after Iranian threats against his life. The information was published by the New York Times on Tuesday, November 10, citing three people familiar with the matter. A Treasury spokesperson confirmed the move and said that Bessent “will not be deterred by the threats of the Iranian regime”.

The decision is linked to assessments by U.S. agencies in recent weeks. Officials concluded that Iranian plans against current and former members of the American government have advanced to a more developed stage, in part because of intelligence that concerned Bessent specifically. How serious the specific threats are has not been made clear. Tehran has not reacted to the report.

Why Bessent is a target

The American secretary is the person behind the economic pressure on Iran. In August his department launched “Operation Economic Outcast”, a campaign targeting the country’s digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping, with the aim of cutting off funds to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). He has argued that the pressure has brought Iran to the point where it “cannot pay its soldiers”.

The campaign continues at full pace. Only on Friday, November 6, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on eight currency exchange businesses in Canada which, according to the department, converted Iranian rials and other currencies into cryptocurrency on behalf of the regime. “The department will hunt down and strike the Iranian regime’s financial channels anywhere in the world,” Bessent said at the time.

The Treasury secretary is not the first member of the Trump administration to change residence for security reasons. Over the past year at least six senior officials, among them Stephen Miller and the then attorney general Pam Bondi, moved to military bases or other protected residences. Not all the threats are linked to Iran.

Concern about Iranian plots extends to American forces abroad too. In October Washington put embassy staff across the Middle East on heightened alert, while on Monday, November 9 it moved aircraft away from the British base at Mildenhall because of an Iranian threat. The New York Times notes that Iran’s ability to organise large-scale attacks in the United States and abroad is limited. American officials nevertheless judge some targeted Iranian threats to be serious, such as the plot to assassinate Donald Trump with a paid hitman, revealed during the 2024 campaign.