Several of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet were targeted by “bomb threats” and “swatting” attempts on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, a Trump spokeswoman said.
Leavitt said that law enforcement officials acted quickly to mitigate the problem, but didn’t provide further details.
“President Trump and the entire transition team are grateful for their swift action,” she said, referring to law enforcement officials.
The FBI, in a statement later Wednesday, said it is aware of swatting incidents and bomb threats targeting Trump nominees and appointees.
“We are working with our law enforcement partners,” the FBI’s statement said. “We take all potential threats seriously, and as always, encourage members of the public to immediately report anything they consider suspicious to law enforcement.”
Trump’s incoming U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) released a statement soon after, confirming she was targeted by a bomb threat.
U.S. Capitol Police, local police, and New York State police responded to the incident, she added.
Leavitt said Trump and the incoming administration “are focused on doing the work of uniting our country by ensuring a safe and prosperous future.”
“With President Trump as our example, dangerous acts of intimidation and violence will not deter us,” she said.
Neither Trump nor Vice President-elect JD Vance have commented on the incidents.
Swatting refers to the action of making a prank call to emergency services such as law enforcement officials in a bid to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to an address.
Last year, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said on social media that she was the victim of several swatting attempts, including on Christmas Day last year.
During the campaign, Trump faced multiple attempts on his life.
In July, he barely survived an assassination attempt while he was speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania, with a bullet clipping his right ear. The gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot and killed by a responding Secret Service sniper.
Two months later, in mid-September, the FBI and law enforcement officials arrested a man who had camped outside his Florida golf course for hours, waiting with an SKS-style rifle. Prosecutors say the suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, wrote a letter detailing his intention to assassinate Trump because he pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2015.
Trump has not publicly indicated whether he wants to revamp the Secret Service, which has been beset by controversy in the wake of the July assassination attempt that also saw its former director, Kimberly Cheatle, resign from office after an hours-long congressional hearing.
The president-elect has not revealed who he would choose as the agency’s director, although he has nominated South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to head the Department of Homeland Security in a statement issued earlier this month. The agency oversees the Secret Service.
Trump is set to be inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2025. Congress is scheduled to certify the Nov. 5 election results on Jan. 6, 2025.
