Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has publicly named the newspaper editor he blames for forcing his family out of their Washington home.
In a Fox News interview with Larry Kudlow, Bessent pointed the finger at Emma Tucker, editor in chief of the Wall Street Journal. He accused the paper of exposing the location of his Washington, D.C., residence, a move he said contributed to his relocation to a U.S. military base amid death threats from Iran.
Kudlow asked him directly about the danger. "Any direct Iranian attempts on your life?" he said.
Bessent declined to go into detail but acknowledged the risk. "We're not going to talk about that, but obviously, it's a high threat level for us to move," he replied.
He then laid the blame squarely on the Journal. "Sadly, one of the reasons we had to move is because [Emma Tucker], the news editor at the Wall Street Journal, authorized a photo of our house the day we bought it, that had a geolocate on it," Bessent said.
"So you can go on the internet, and see our beautiful residence that we made our home here in D.C. because of reckless journalism," he added. WND first highlighted the exchange.
The Treasury secretary also condemned what he called the "evil" conduct of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps toward its own citizens. "The brave Iranian people, tens of thousands of them have been killed this year by the regime," he said.
"Many of the protesters who were injured, the IRGC hunted them down hunted them down in their hospital beds and then killed them. These are evil people," Bessent continued.
He insisted the threats would not shake the administration's resolve. "This Cabinet is not going to be deterred. President Trump is not deterred in the mission," he said.
Bessent pointed to the Treasury-led pressure campaign against Tehran. "And with Operation Economic Outcast, which began in the end of August, led by Treasury President Trump gave us the order and this is the greatest economic isolation in the history of the world against a single country," he said.
"And we are squeezing them and their death threats tell me that everything I'm doing is working," he added. In his view, the threats are proof that the strategy is landing.
He predicted that the coming winter would bring even greater hardship to Iran. "They're already warning the people this going to be a tough winter. Could you imagine that they're not going to have enough gas in Iran because of their creaking infrastructure and all of the money that the IRGC has stolen?" he said.
"They're gonna have gas shortages for home heating. They already have gasoline lines [of] three, four hours. We have them completely isolated," Bessent continued.
He also described the travel restrictions now squeezing the regime's elite. "We have the airline quarantine. And my message has been, if the Iranian regime loves their country, then great," he said.
"They're stuck there. They can't fly to London to see their family, Paris to see their girlfriends, Geneva to visit their money," Bessent added.
He argued that Iran's leaders are cut off from the reality facing ordinary citizens. "Part of the problem," Bessent continued, "is a lot of the leadership there, they're like rats in a sewer pipe. They're in underground bunkers and they don't see how bad it is up top."
The secretary closed with a stark forecast for Iran's economy. "I am convinced that we are approaching an acceleration. There's a thought that the economy from March of '26 to March of '27, they will collapse 25% in one year," he said.
He put that figure in historical context. "To put that in perspective, the Russian economy went down 22% over three years when the Soviet Union collapsed. So this is one of the fastest collapses in history."
Login