Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently moved out of his home in the Washington area and onto a military base after Iranian threats against his life, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the matter, and Reuters reported the account the same day. The severity of the threats was not immediately clear, US officials have noted that Iran’s ability to carry out large scale attacks in the United States is limited, and the Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The move follows a warning late last month from a senior Trump administration intelligence official, in a memo seen by Reuters, that Iran has stepped up efforts to target US personnel and that lethal plots by Tehran against American citizens have reached advanced stages. Iran has previously denied plotting to attack officials and people on US soil. Bessent has led Washington’s economic pressure campaign against Tehran through the US and Israeli war on Iran that began on February 28.