WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was recently forced to move to a military base out of security concerns.
The move comes as Bessent has spent the past few months waging a massive economic campaign against Iran aimed at severing all of Tehran’s remaining financial ties to the world.
A person familiar with the matter, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Wednesday to discuss sensitive details, said the move was partly due to media reports that helped identify Bessent’s home address. The move was previously reported by the New York Times.
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Recent U.S. intelligence showed that Iran had stepped up efforts to target U.S. personnel in the Middle East and elsewhere, contributing to the State Department last month reducing staffing at four U.S. embassies in the region.
President Donald Trump declared this week that the more than eight-month-old war in Iran “is effectively over militarily,” but his administration has maintained the financial war in an effort to get Iran to capitulate to U.S. demands over Tehran’s nuclear program.
The Treasury Department promised an “economic D-day” against Tehran in August, and it turned into a massive sanctions and influence campaign.
U.S. officials have spent recent months traveling from Europe to the Middle East and meeting behind closed doors on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly to make their case to some of Tehran’s closest and most vital trading partners: sever those financial ties or face retaliation from the United States.
And it seems that some have followed suit. The United Arab Emirates and Turkey – key trading partners and regional neighbors – have blocked Iran’s main commercial bank from conducting transactions in their countries, while some of the country’s largest airlines have been cut off from critical regional routes between Istanbul and Muscat, Oman.
Other top Trump administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, also live on military bases.
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