Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, an architect of President Donald Trump’s plan to inflict economic pain on Iran, has moved to a U.S. military base following death threats, The New York Times and Fox News reported Nov. 10.
Treasury department officials confirmed the move and said Bessent will "not be deterred by the Iranian regime’s threats," the Times and Fox reported. The severity of the threats wasn’t immediately clear.
USA TODAY has reached out to the Treasury Department and the White House for further information. The location of the base was not included in the reports.
Bessent’s reported move comes about nine months after the launch of the war that Trump has argued was necessary to ensure Iran did not obtain a nuclear weapon. Critics of the war have
derided that justification for the on-again, off-again fighting, which has lasted far longer than the president said it would and inflicted a heavy economic toll on Americans.
Pentagon officials told Congress at the end of October that the war has thus far cost over $47 billion. Iran’s move to close the Strait of Hormuz also has caused gas prices to skyrocket and the war has taken a significant toll on the military’s stockpile of missiles, according to experts.
In recent months, top U.S. officials have expressed concerns that Iran is switching up its tactics in order to potentially strike Americans outside the region. The United States hastily moved bombers out of Britain in early October amid a suspected terror plot at a base where the military staged flights to Iran.
Bessent’s move follows an announcement by FBI Director Kash Patel earlier on Nov. 10 that the Department of Justice had indicted three Iranian-backed operatives suspected of being behind nearly 20 plots across the United States and Europe.
According to the DOJ, the trio attempted to stage attacks on Jewish communities in the United States and Britain and were also involved in the suspected plot at the RAF Fairford airbase in Britain, where American service members were stationed.
The Treasury secretary is the latest top Trump official to move onto a military base amid suspected threats.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth are neighbors on a military base in Washington, DC, Rubio previously said on a podcast. Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also lived on a Washington-area base towards the end of her tenure, USA TODAY Network member Nashville Tennessean previously reported.
Top Trump aide and now White House chief of staff Stephen Miller moved onto military housing in September 2025 after facing what he described as harassment at his home in Virginia, The Atlantic reported. Miller is the chief architect of Trump’s unpopular and deadly mass deportations campaign.
It’s unclear how much the move to federal housing for top White House officials is costing taxpayers.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Treasury's Bessent moved to military base after Iranian threats
