The president-elect’s spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, denounced “anti-American attacks”, while threats have increased in recent days against the future Trump administration. Several members of the next president’s team have received threats, including bomb threats to their homes, the FBI reported on Wednesday, November 27. The American federal police also report facts of swattinga practice which consists of provoking police raids on victims under the pretext that a crime is taking place there.
Former parliamentarian Lee Zeldin, chosen by Donald Trump to head the Environmental Protection Agency, said he was targeted Wednesday with his family by “a bomb threat” accompanied by a “message with a pro-Palestinian theme. “Neither my family nor I were at home at the time and we are safe,” he added on X. Elise Stefanik, appointed by Donald Trump to be American ambassador to the UN, also said in a statement that it had been “warned of a bomb threat at her home”.
“Credible threats”
“We take all potential threats seriously,” the FBI continues. In total, around ten future elected officials have experienced threats in recent days in several states, including future Attorney General Pam Bondi, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to CBS News.
The American channel indicates that among these threats “at least two were credible bomb threats”. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, chosen by Trump to be the future secretary of Labor, and Pete Hegseth declared that the police had informed them that their homes had been the target of “a threat of a homemade bomb explosion”, according to CNN. The messages were received between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.
Informed of the situation, outgoing President Joe Biden condemned “unequivocally the threats of political violence”, according to a White House press release. The Democrat’s administration is in contact with federal authorities and the Republican billionaire’s team on the subject, she said, having committed to ensuring a peaceful transition. The presidential campaign was indeed one of the most tense in modern US history, with Donald Trump being the victim of two assassination attempts.
However, a law enforcement source told CNN that these swatting calls are “fairly common” and often target people who are in the news at any given time. “Special prosecutor Jack Smith, for example, and Judge Tanya Chutkan, who oversaw the federal election subversion case against Trump, have already been the targets of such incidents,” recalls the American channel.