Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed on live television Friday morning that Iranian threats have forced him to move to a military base. As a result, he had a few choice words for Tehran and ... the Wall Street Journal?
Speaking on CNBC's "Squawk Box," Bessent dispensed with the diplomatic niceties almost immediately.
"F the Iranian leadership," he said, according to CNBC's transcript. "I'm not going to be cowered that they have initiated death threats against me."
Bessent framed the threats as proof the administration's pressure campaign is going according to plan. He said the threats mean "Operation Economic Outcast is working."
He also described the Revolutionary Guard as "like a dangerous cornered animal."
President Trump has already warned that anyone who kills a U.S. official "will not exist any longer."
.@SecScottBessent: "F the Iranian leadership. I'm not going to be cowered." https://t.co/L50PSuSYPF
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 13, 2026
Bessent then turned to how Iran knew where to find him in the first place. He said he moved on the Secret Service's instructions, partly because the Journal "printed a photo of my house the day I bought it that has geolocate on it."
The paper's January 2025 story ran under the headline: Scott Bessent Pays $12.5 Million for Georgetown Mansion. Bessent said his team asked the paper not to go through with the piece. Or at least not the identifying information.
"And in a highly irresponsible way, the editor, we pleaded with her not to print the location of my house, but she did anyway," he said. "Highly irresponsible and dangerous."
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? SCOTT BESSENT WAS FORCED TO RELOCATE TO A MILITARY BASE BECAUSE OF THREATS FROM IRAN. THIS COMES AFTER THE WALL STREET JOURNAL PUBLISHED AN AERIAL VIEW OF HIS HOME. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE!!! https://t.co/oqkxYfVLXl
— Graham Allen (@GrahamAllen) November 11, 2026
Bessent had been confirmed as Treasury secretary days before the WSJ published the information.
Now, he's the official quarterbacking the administration's financial squeeze on Tehran. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why Iran would want to track him down. And our own media may have helped them out.
Moving a sitting Cabinet secretary onto a military base isn’t exactly a routine precaution. The Secret Service obviously made that call because it believed the threat was credible.
And while it isn’t commonplace, Bessent also isn't the first Trump official forced out of his home. Even recently. According to The New York Times, at least half a dozen senior administration officials moved from Washington-area homes to military bases or other protected housing last year.
The Times reports that U.S. officials concluded in recent weeks that Iranian plotting against current and former American officials had reached "a more advanced stage." That conclusion was based in part on intelligence about threats to Bessent.
President Trump himself has been in Tehran's crosshairs since he ordered the January 2020 drone strike that killed Quds Force commander Qassim Suleimani. In 2024, federal prosecutors charged Farhad Shakeri, described as a Revolutionary Guard operative, with plotting to kill Trump in retaliation.
A Treasury spokesperson said Bessent "will not be deterred by the Iranian regime's threats."
The mullahs want Bessent scared. Instead, he went on national television and told them where they could stick it. Well done.
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