Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has moved out of his Washington-area home and onto a U.S. military base after Iranian threats against his life, The New York Times reported on Tuesday, Nov. 10. Reuters, CBS News and Fox News confirmed the move through their own sources, and Treasury confirmed it to Fox. A spokesperson said Bessent “will not be deterred by the Iranian regime’s threats and remains committed to executing Operation Economic Outcast,” the department’s sanctions campaign against Iran.
No outlet has named the base or said when he moved. A senior administration official told Fox News he would not say when Bessent was relocated.
How serious the threats are depends on who you ask
The accounts differ on the danger. The Times said it was not immediately clear how serious the threats were, according to Reuters and Al Jazeera. The same report said Iran’s ability to carry out large-scale attacks inside the United States is limited, but that it has stepped up efforts to target current and former U.S. officials. The senior official who spoke to Fox went further, saying the threats had reached “more than an advanced stage.”
Fox also reported, without naming a source, that White House chief of staff Stephen Miller and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have moved into military or protected housing in recent weeks. No other outlet has reported that, and neither the White House nor the State Department has commented on it.
The White House has not commented on Bessent’s move. CBS said it had asked.
A real-estate photo from January 2025
One source traced the worry to the press. Concerns about Bessent’s safety grew after The Wall Street Journal reported in January 2025 that he had bought a Georgetown mansion for $12.5 million, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. The story included an aerial photo of the house, and the person said the image allowed its location to be pinned down. “The news media has an obligation to act responsibly amid growing threats against public officials,” the person said. A source gave CBS a similar account of an online photo that let the home be geolocated. The Journal did not immediately respond to Reuters.
That account doesn’t explain why a photo published nearly two years ago would prompt a move now. None of the reports says the threats were linked to the photo, or that anyone acted on it.
The intelligence is still classified
The reports come less than three weeks after the director of national intelligence, Jay Clayton, warned in an Oct. 23 memo that Iran had “substantially increased” its efforts to target Americans. Clayton’s memo to Rubio was unclassified, but it described no targets, countries or timeline, and it said the warning applied to more people than were cleared to read the intelligence behind it. Reuters said a memo it saw late last month warned that Iranian plots against U.S. personnel and citizens had reached an advanced stage. The underlying reporting has not been made public.
As Treasury secretary, Bessent runs Operation Economic Outcast, which Treasury says, together with the U.S. naval blockade, is collapsing Iran’s economy. Iran has previously denied plotting to attack officials and people on U.S. soil, Reuters and Al Jazeera noted. We found no Iranian response to the reports about Bessent as of Thursday.
U.S. prosecutors have charged Iranian plots against American officials before. They include a 2022 case over a planned killing of former national security adviser John Bolton and a Brooklyn conviction in March of a man who testified that a Revolutionary Guard handler sent him to arrange a political assassination. We laid out those cases, and Clayton’s memo, in Iran Plots Against U.S. Staff Are ‘Advanced,’ Intel Chief Warns.
Sources
- Reuters via Yahoo News, David Lawder and Kanishka Singh, “US Treasury chief Bessent moved to military base after Iranian threats, sources say” (Nov. 10, 2026). Used for: the move, the Treasury statement, the January 2025 Journal story and photo, the memo, Iran’s past denials.
- CBS News, Sara Cook, “Bessent relocates from D.C.-area home to military base following Iran threats” (Nov. 11, 2026). Used for: the Times reporting first, the geolocated photo, the Treasury statement, Clayton’s memo, the request to the White House.
- Al Jazeera, “US Treasury chief Bessent moved to military base after ‘Iranian threats'” (Nov. 11, 2026). Used for: the Times’ account of the threats and Iran’s capabilities, the source’s quote on the media.
- Fox News, Anders Hagstrom, “Bessent moved to military base as Iran threats exceed ‘advanced stage,’ official says” (Nov. 11, 2026). Used for: the senior official’s assessment and timing, Miller and Rubio.
- DeClassified Now, “Iran Plots Against U.S. Staff Are ‘Advanced,’ Intel Chief Warns” (Oct. 24, 2026). Used for: Clayton’s memo and the earlier prosecutions.