Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused Wall Street Journal editor Emma Tucker of reckless journalism, saying a photograph of his Washington, D.C., home revealed its location.
Speaking on “Sunday Morning Futures,” Bessent would not say whether he had been the target of an assassination attempt. He said, though, that the threats were serious enough for his family to move to a military base.
“There’s clearly a high level of threat for us to relocate,” he said. Bessent blamed the move in part on a photograph of the house that he said Tucker approved on the day he bought it. The image included geolocation information, he said, making the home easy to find online.
A senior administration official said threats against Bessent had advanced significantly amid reports of Iranian threats to assassinate him.
Bessent is among a growing number of senior Trump administration officials who have moved to military installations or other secure government housing as authorities deal with threats extending beyond the White House. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have reportedly moved to Fort McNair in Washington. White House chief of staff Stephen Miller and other officials have also relocated, while Attorney General Todd Blanche moved to a military base earlier this year, according to a person familiar with the arrangement.
The moves reflect different security concerns. Some officials have faced worries about domestic political violence, while Bessent’s relocation comes amid reported threats connected to Iran.
U.S. authorities have previously brought cases involving alleged Iranian-backed assassination plots against senior American figures. In 2022, the Justice Department charged a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in an alleged murder-for-hire plot targeting former Trump national security adviser John Bolton. Prosecutors said in 2024 that another Iranian operative had allegedly been assigned to develop a plan to kill Trump.
