On Wednesday, the FBI said it was aware of “numerous bomb threats” and “swatting incidents” against at least nine people chosen by U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump throughout Tuesday night and into Wednesday.
Trump transition team spokeperson Karoline Leavitt said the nominees “were targeted in violent, un-American threats to their lives and those who live with them.”
Trump nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) said her family home had been threatened while she, her husband, and their three-year-old son were driving home from Washington, D.C. to New York for Thanksgiving.
Defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth later confirmed that he was also targeted, posting on X that a police officer had threatened him and his family with “a credible pipe bomb threat” while his seven children were sleeping inside their home.
“I will not be bullied or intimidated. Never,” Hegseth wrote. “President Trump has called on me to serve – and that is what I intend to do.”
Lee Zeldin, appointed by Trump to serve as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, was also targeted with a “pipe bomb threat” inscribed 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.”
