Bessent Moves to Military Base After Iranian Threats, NYT Reports

U.S. officials have concluded in recent weeks that Iranian plotting against current and former American officials had reached a more advanced stage, based in part on intelligence about threats to Bessent, the newspaper said. The people who described the relocation spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

Treasury Says Bessent Will Not Be Deterred

Since August, Bessent has led an economic pressure campaign meant to isolate Iran financially through tougher sanctions and restrictions on trade routes. That role has made him one of the administration officials Iran most wants to harm, the people told The Times.

Reuters, which confirmed the move with two people familiar with the matter, said the campaign is known as Operation Economic Outcast and is meant to push Tehran to end attacks on shipping and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway has been largely closed since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, and the pressure campaign has run alongside a U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports.

A Treasury Department spokesperson said in an emailed statement that “the secretary will not be deterred by the Iranian regime’s threats and remains committed to executing Operation Economic Outcast and maintaining the blockade, which together are collapsing Iran’s economy.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio has separately described Iran’s economic pain as extraordinary and compounding.

Severity of the Threats Remains Unclear

The Times reported that the severity of the threats against Bessent is unclear. U.S. officials have said Iran’s ability to carry out large-scale attacks in the United States and other territories overseas is limited, while also treating some targeted plots as serious, including a murder-for-hire scheme against President Donald Trump during the 2024 campaign.

A source told Reuters that security concerns around Bessent increased after The Wall Street Journal published an aerial view of the Georgetown mansion he bought for $12.5 million shortly after his confirmation in January 2025. The photograph allowed the home to be geolocated, the source said. Iran has previously denied plotting to attack officials and people on U.S. soil.

Reuters also reported that a senior intelligence official in the Trump administration warned in a memo late last month that Iranian plots against U.S. personnel and American citizens had reached an advanced stage.

Other Officials Have Also Relocated

Bessent is the latest senior Trump administration official to leave a Washington-area home for a military base or other protected housing. The Times said at least half a dozen did so last year, including Stephen Miller, now White House chief of staff, and Pam Bondi, then attorney general. Not all of those threats involved Iran; in Bondi’s case, they were said to relate in part to an uptick after U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro in Caracas and brought him to New York.

Last month, the U.S. government put employees on heightened alert across the Middle East and moved to reduce personnel at embassies and consulates after intelligence showed Iran was in the advanced stages of planning attacks against Americans. The U.S. military also abruptly moved bombers from a base in the United Kingdom after a suspected terrorist plot.

A central aim of Bessent’s campaign is to cut off money to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which also controls much of Iran’s economy. The administration hopes the pressure will help spare the United States from having to resume major military operations in the war that began on Feb. 28.

U.S. intelligence, however, indicates that Iran’s hard-line leadership is determined to hold on to power at nearly any cost, according to two officials cited by The Times, suggesting economic pain alone may not produce regime change. Bessent has also, with Trump’s backing, asked China to use its influence with Tehran to help end the war.