Bessent, driving force behind US push to cripple Iran’s economy, relocates over alleged threat to his life

Bessent, driving force behind US push to cripple Iran’s economy, relocates over alleged threat to his life

The US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has relocated from his home in the Washington area to a military base after an Iranian threat against his life, the New York Times has reported.

Bessent has spearheaded a US push to cripple Iran’s economy since the start of the Middle East war, vowing “economic asphyxiation” of the Islamic republic through a web of sanctions.

He is one of a number of senior figures in the Trump administration including the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the new chief of staff, Stephen Miller, to leave their home to live on a military base or protected housing.

  • Madison420
    6·
    2 hours ago

    Not really no. Jag specifically have it out for the administration and their stooges. There’s a bunch of loud mouth retirees that support the admin but the rest are simply doing as they are told most of these things have no legal test yet and have to be decided on court, failing to follow orders is a criminal act that ruins careers so most people aren’t going to risk that and they’ll instead leave it to jag to figure out.

    • one_step_behind@quokk.auEnglish
      3·
      2 hours ago

      I’m on the outside looking in so I just saw the news about them going into cities and helping ICE. And I remember they wasted a bunch of water when California was having fires but maybe that was during his first presidency.

      Good to hear someone in the service is opposing them. I worry that “doing as they are told” will be the issue. Trumps plan seems to be to not care about legality and ignore court orders because no one is enforcing them. I don’t know anything about how the military courts enforce this stuff vs the rest of the countries courts.

      • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.clubEnglish
        2·
        1 hour ago

        There is still the major taboo in the USA about military leadership openly challenging civilian leadership. Several generals have lost their positions by trying to circumvent and criticize the President too openly, including Douglas MacArthur and Stanley McChrystal.

      • Madison420
        4·
        2 hours ago

        That’s national guard and while technically it is illegal for military to act as police the act has never successfully been tested in court and therefore they couldn’t legally refuse the order.

      • Madison420
        2·
        2 hours ago

        A few fired and a few more left in protest, but jag is actually way larger than most people expect. (6000 or so employees and rated attorneys)