Cabinet members nominated by president-elect Donald Trump have received threats of “Malicious Alarm”, US media reported Sunday. Federal law enforcement has stepped in to protect members of Donald Trump’s team and their families from threats. Analysts say similar threats are increasingly being used against high-profile individuals.
Donald Trump, source: Media
On the 27th, Donald Trump’s Bloomberg L.P. Team said, several of Donald Trump’s cabinet and government nominees were “Subjected to violent, non-american-style threats” between the evening and the morning of the 26th and 27th local time. “These threats include bomb threats and malicious alarms,” Caroline of Ansbach Levitt, a spokesman for the transition team and nominee for White House Press Secretary, said in a statement. Law enforcement agencies and other departments to take prompt action to ensure the safety of the target. President Donald Trump and the entire transition team thanked them for their swift action,” Levitt said, donald Trump and his team remain focused on their work and “Dangerous intimidation and violence will not deter them”.
Lutnik, the chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald, which was named Commerce Secretary, was among the nominees for the bomb threat, according to reports. Sources said New York State Police received an e-mail about 8 am local time on the 27th, claiming that a bomb had been placed in Lutnick’s mailbox in Manhattan. “This morning, Congresswoman Elis Stefanick, her husband and their three-year-old son were driving back from Washington for Thanksgiving when they were notified that there was a bomb threat at their Saratoga County,” Stefanick’s office said in a statement Tuesday
The Washington Post reported on the 27th that in addition to the above two people, rawlins, Donald Trump’s choice for agriculture; Scott Turner, his choice for housing and Urban Development; Drehmer, his choice for labor; Zeldin, his choice for Environmental Protection Agency; They received a bomb threat. The home of former Justice Minister nominee Matt Gates, who has announced his withdrawal, has also received bomb threats, Reuters said.
In response, the FBI said in a statement on the 27th that “Multiple bomb threats and malicious 911 calls” were directed against members of Donald Trump’s chosen cabinet and other positions in the new administration. “We take all potential threats seriously and encourage the public to report immediately to law enforcement anything they deem suspicious,” the agency said, whenever members of Congress fall victim to such threats, “We work closely with our federal and local law enforcement partners,” not just to protect ongoing investigations, it also minimizes the risk of copycat behavior.
President Biden was briefed on the incident and condemned the threat of political violence, a White House spokesman said Tuesday. He said the White House would be in touch with federal law enforcement and Donald Trump’s team and would continue to monitor developments closely. The response from federal law enforcement and local agencies will continue.
US politicians have increasingly been the target of“Malicious 911” attacks. Earlier this year, a caller using a fake number falsely reported a fire at the White House and asked the Washington, D.C. , government to send fire and rescue workers to the White House, Bloomberg reported. Biden was in Camp David, Maryland, for the weekend. Republican Rick Scott such as Florida Senator and Georgia Congressman Marjory Guerin have also been harassed by “Malicious 911” calls before.
The rise in such“Malicious threats” is also a microcosm of the increased risk of political violence in the US. According to the Council on Foreign Relations website, the University of Nebraska in Omaha has reported a record 2024 of threats against public officials across the US. According to the Washington Post, since the beginning of the 2024, members of Congress, state officials, local leaders and judges, some of whom are well known, have been politically threatened across the country, others are relatively low-key.
Some threatened officials said they feared the threat could turn violent at any time, the report said. With the exception of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in July, there are 20th-century precedents for such behaviour. In 1995, disgruntled with the federal government, they planned and carried out a Oklahoma City bombing of a federal building that killed 168 people.