Bessent and his family reportedly moved in the face of Iranian security threats
Former CIA station chief Dan Hoffman examines the reported Iranian threats that prompted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his family to move to a military base. He also discusses allegations of Iranian cyberattacks in France and cooperation between Iran and Russia to circumvent American military and economic restrictions.
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Military bases around Washington, D.C., have become an increasingly common refuge for some of President Donald Trump’s most powerful officials, as Iran-related threats and a surge in threats against public officials raise security concerns within the administration.
“So you have this combination of a permission structure on the left for violence, combine it with the ability to track it and create a long paper trail, and the numbers explode, and these threat matrices go crazy,” said former Secret Service agent and former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is the latest senior administration official to move into a military installation, joining a growing number of senior Trump officials living behind military gates as federal authorities face security threats that extend far beyond the White House.
Iran has “significantly increased” its efforts to target Americans abroad, the US intelligence memo warns.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks to the media outside the White House in Washington, DC, November 5, 2025. (Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“After The Wall Street Journal published an article featuring an online photo that geolocated the location of the secretary’s home in Georgetown, security concerns began to mount, forcing the secretary to move to a military base for his safety. The news media has an obligation to act responsibly in the face of growing threats against public officials,” a source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital.
The threats against Bessent have reached “a more than advanced stage” amid reported Iranian assassination threats, a senior administration official told Fox News Digital on Tuesday, without elaborating.
The Iranian threats against Bessent come amid a documented history of alleged Tehran-backed assassination plots targeting senior U.S. officials.
Attorney General Todd Blanche also moved from his home to a military base around March, another source familiar with the arrangements told Fox News Digital on Thursday.
The Justice Department indicted a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 2022 in connection with an alleged murder-for-hire plot targeting former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, while prosecutors revealed in 2024 that another Iranian operative was allegedly responsible for developing a plan to assassinate Trump.
Bongino said federal protection decisions are typically driven by threat assessments that take into account threatening communications, social media activity and intelligence collected by security personnel. Agencies charged with protecting senior officials use these assessments to determine what level of protection is necessary.
Secret Service Director Sean Curran said last month that threats against the agency’s full-time protectees had increased more than 40% from the previous year, with about 10,000 instances of threats recorded in 2026 at the time.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House and the Secret Service for comment.
“Unfortunately, almost anyone at the cabinet, or even at the sub-cabinet level, with any type of public figure in the Trump administration, needed a detail,” Bongino said.
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United States Second Lady Usha Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bassent, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick arrive for US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump to greet Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla during an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, April 28, 2026. (Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images)
The assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and multiple attacks against President Donald Trump have heightened concerns about political violence, as security officials face a growing number of threats against public officials.
Bongino pointed to his own experience as deputy director of the FBI, saying his security needs were comparable to those of some of the government’s top law enforcement officials.
“Mine was tied with the attorney general and the FBI director and we had to expand it,” Bongino said of his threat assessment and security services. “It was an independent analysis.”
Bongino said social media has made it easier to track threats against public officials, but the sheer volume of online activity has also created more work for investigators trying to determine which threats are credible.
SECRET SERVICE CHIEF SAYS THREATS AGAINST PROTECTED PROTECTED UP 40%, CITES INTERNET AND MENTAL HEALTH
A U.S. Secret Service police officer stands in front of the White House the day after President Donald Trump announced U.S. military strikes on nuclear sites in Iran, June 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
Bongino said the disruption to Bessent’s personal life underscores the severity of the security concerns surrounding his move.
“He has to uproot his life. And go to a military installation where the housing is not great in these places, but it’s definitely not what he’s used to,” Bongino said. “This thing, it’s not about convenience, I can promise you that. It’s really serious stuff.”
Lawmakers also expressed concerns about security and federal spending. Rep. George Whitesides, Democrat of California, won approval from the House Armed Services Committee in June for a proposal seeking a report from the Pentagon on political appointees living in military housing, including threats justifying their move, legal authority for the arrangements and rental costs.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., also questioned whether the reported transfer of $415 million in Secret Service funds to White House construction projects could affect the agency’s protective operations, citing the federal watchdog’s concerns about understaffing and resources.
Barry Donadio, a former Secret Service agent who served under the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, also told Fox News Digital that the decision to transfer Bessent to a military installation suggests an extraordinary level of concern among those responsible for his protection.
“My first thought is that the (threat) is so high that they can’t protect him with certainty unless he’s on a military base, which says a lot about the current situation,” Donadio said.
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Officers from the U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division patrol near the White House on March 9, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Donadio said the move could indicate that officials believe Bessent would be safer on a military base than in a private residence.
“They may have already foiled an attack that was not made public and, as an additional measure, transferred him to a military base for preventive detention,” Donadio said, clarifying that he did not mean that Bessent was in custody, but rather under enhanced government protection.
Bessent is not the only senior Trump administration official whose security concerns prompted a move to military housing.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have reportedly taken up residence at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., while White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and other administration officials have reportedly moved to military installations or sheltered government housing.
TRUMP ADMIN APPROVES $351 MILLION FOR WHITE HOUSE SECURITY MEASURES AMID QUESTIONS ON BALLROOM FUNDING
President Donald Trump attends a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, May 27, 2026. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
Not all relocations arise from the same threats. Some followed concerns about domestic political violence, while Bessent’s decision comes amid threats linked to Iran.
Bongino said threats against high-level officials can also extend beyond their tenure in government, describing an incident in which an individual allegedly appeared at a California television studio with a manifesto threatening him and other officials.
“I mean, this stuff is real, it happens every day,” Bongino said. “And when you experience it and you’re not used to it, you know, and it follows you after the office as well.”
He said officials including Bessent, FBI Director Kash Patel, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Hegseth understood that public service within the administration could make them targets even after they left office.
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Fort McNair, a historic military installation along the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., has become one of the military properties housing top Trump administration officials. The facility, which dates to the late 1700s, is home to the National Defense University and traditionally provides housing for senior military leaders.
Fort McNair’s residential neighborhoods are divided into two housing groups, according to a 2020 National Capital Planning Commission report, while a 2024 Army file identifies 27 historic homes built before 1919 on the installation.
The Army’s housing website lists 88 combined historic housing units at Fort McNair and nearby Fort Myer, without specifying how many are on each base.
The growing use of military housing by senior civilian officials also raises questions about who approves the arrangements, whether officials fund their housing, and what impact, if any, these moves have on housing traditionally reserved for military personnel.
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