Treasury Secretary Bessent: “F the Iranian Leadership. I’m Not Going to Be Cowered”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent delivered a blunt message Friday morning on CNBC’s Squawk Box, refusing to back down from Iranian death threats that forced him from his Georgetown home onto a U.S. military base.
“You know what I gotta say, Joe, is F the Iranian leadership. I’m not going to be cowered that they have initiated death threats against me, other members of the cabinet. We’re not going to be cowered,” Bessent told host Joe Kernen. “And it means what we are doing with Operation Economic Outcast is working.”
Bessent leads the Trump administration’s aggressive economic campaign to isolate the Iranian regime, cut funding to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and collapse Tehran’s ability to finance terrorism and attacks on shipping. Intelligence assessments have warned that Iranian plots against American officials have reached advanced stages. Iran has denied the threats.
Bessent dismissed any notion of intimidation. “Why am I going to be afraid when the brave military personnel in the Gulf, President Trump, constantly receives death threats? And what we are doing is working. And the IRGC, they’re like a dangerous cornered animal. So I follow the Secret Service instructions and have moved from my home to a military base.”
He also took direct aim at the Wall Street Journal for publishing an aerial photograph of his home shortly after he purchased it for $12.5 million following his confirmation. The image contained geolocation data.
“One of the reasons I’ve had to move is because the Wall Street Journal printed a photo of my house the day I bought it. It has geolocate on it. And in a highly irresponsible way, the editor, we pleaded with her not to print the location of my house, but she did anyway. Highly irresponsible and dangerous. And things like that have to stop too.”
The Treasury Department has said Bessent will not be deterred and remains fully committed to Operation Economic Outcast and the accompanying naval blockade, which officials say are already strangling Iran’s oil exports, depleting its shadow tanker fleet, and emptying key terminals. The secretary’s relocation, ordered by the Secret Service, underscores both the regime’s desperation and the administration’s resolve to keep the pressure on.