Several of Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and picks for his White House team have been targeted by bomb threats.
The FBI said it was aware of “numerous bomb threats” as well as “swatting incidents”, in which hoax calls are made to attract a police response to the target’s home.
Threats were made against at least nine people chosen by Trump to lead the Departments of Defence, Housing, Agriculture and Labor, as well as his pick for US ambassador to the United Nations, among others.
Police are investigating the incidents, which happened on Tuesday night and Wednesday.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Trump’s transition team, said the Trump appointees “were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them”.
She said “law enforcement acted quickly to ensure” the nominees’ safety.
“With President Trump as our example, dangerous acts of intimidation and violence will not deter us,” she said.
Neither Leavitt nor the FBI identified any of the targets by name.
New York Republican Elise Stefanik, who Trump has named to be the US ambassador to the United Nations, was the first to say her family home had been targeted by a bomb threat.
Her office said the congresswoman was informed of the threat while she was driving with her husband and three-year-old son from Washington DC to New York for Thanksgiving.
Defence secretary nominee Pete Hegseth later confirmed that he was also targeted.
On X, he said that a police officer had shown up at his home on Wednesday morning, as his seven children were sleeping inside, to notify him they had received “a credible pipe bomb threat”.
“I will not be bullied or intimidated. Never,” he wrote. “President Trump has called on me to serve—and that is what I intend to do.”
Trump, who survived two assassination attempts during his campaign, was not among those who received the hoax calls, law enforcement sources told US media.
He has received genuine threats recently, according to officials in Arizona who arrested a man earlier this week for posting videos on a “near-daily basis” in which he threatened to kill Trump and his family.
None of those targeted this week were protected by the US Secret Service, according to media reports.
Lee Zeldin, who Trump has nominated to become administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, also confirmed he was targeted, saying a “pipe bomb threat” was sent to his home with a “pro-Palestinian themed message”.
“My family and I were not home at the time and are safe,” he said. “We are thankful for the swift actions taken by local officers.”
Brooke Rollins, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Agriculture, posted on X to thank police in Fort Worth, Texas, for their “swift efforts” to investigate a threat to her family on Wednesday morning.
“We were unharmed and quickly returned home,” she wrote.
Scott Turner, Trump’s pick for Department of Housing, and Lori Chavez-Deremer, his pick for Labor Secretary, also posted on social media that they had been targeted. They each vowed that they would not be deterred by the threats.
President Joe Biden “has been briefed” on the threats, the White House said in a statement.
“The White House is in touch with federal law enforcement and the President-elect’s team, and continues to monitor the situation closely.”
US Capitol Police, which protects Congress, said in the statement that it was working federal law enforcement agencies on any alleged “swatting” but would provide further details of the threats “to minimise the risk of copy-cats”.
Florida Republican Matt Gaetz, who recently dropped out of the running to become US attorney general, was also targeted.
The sheriff’s office in Florida’s Okaloosa County confirmed that a bomb threat targeted an address in the town of Niceville.
The home’s mailbox was cleared and no devices were located, police said, and a search of the area did not uncover anything.
New York police told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that the New York home of Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, was also threatened.
Pam Bondi, who was tapped to replace Gaetz as Trump’s nominee, was also targeted along with incoming White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, according to CBS.
Fox News reports that John Ratcliffe, Trump’s nominee to be director of the CIA, also received threats.
Similar hoax tactics have been recently used against other high-profile political figures, including against the judges and prosecutors who oversaw the criminal cases against Trump.
Last year, US politicians around the country were swatted over Christmas. Most were Republican, but some Democrats were targeted as well.
Source: BBC
