Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has moved from his home to a military base because of a reported Iranian threat to his life, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke to The New York Times. The relocation has drawn sharp mockery from critics, who seized on the security measure as evidence that the war President Donald Trump launched against Iran on February 28 is far from over.
Bessent has led the administration's effort since August to squeeze Iran's finances through economic pressure. Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, has also moved into guarded housing, the sources said. Officials told the Times that Iran's hardliners intend to hold on to power regardless of the cost to their country, and that financial pressure alone may not be enough to topple the leadership in Tehran.
Trump has promised to end the war, but the security precautions around his economic team have been seized on by critics as a sign that the conflict has not been resolved. Some hawks in Trump's orbit have gone further, blaming the administration's reluctance to escalate militarily for the current situation. Critics mocked the "fortress" security arrangements as a sign that the war is unfinished, even as the administration continues to present its strategy as on track.
The security concerns surfaced the same week that the Justice Department's FBI added an Iranian official to its Most Wanted list. The bureau named Shahram Poursafi, an officer of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who is accused of soliciting the murders of two former US officials between 2021 and 2022. One of the alleged targets was former national security adviser John Bolton. The FBI says the alleged motive was revenge for the 2020 killing of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian general, and that Poursafi offered $300,000 to US-based killers. The bureau is also seeking three Quds Force officials, identified as Ansari, Alizadeh and Shamoradizadeh.
The Bessent episode came as the administration faced a separate political fight over its immigration policy. Commentators Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart criticized plans for a Department of Homeland Security mega-detention center. In Social Circle, Georgia, a proposal for a warehouse holding up to 10,000 detainees was canceled after local opposition. Critics have warned that such facilities could hold citizens without trial. The White House attacked Stewart's remarks, and spokesperson Pipko argued that immigrants should be distinguished from illegal immigrants.
Former President Joe Biden, in his memoir "Promise Me, America," reprints a 2021 letter from Trump and describes Trump as seeming like "two Donald Trumps." The White House called Biden's account a disgrace. Taken together, the disputes over Iran, security for senior officials and detention policy show an administration under pressure on several fronts at once, with the war at the center of much of the criticism.