Bessent invokes assassination attempt '2 hours after being sworn in' in dramatic brushback of leftist threat

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday he was the target of an assassination attempt by a "left-wing activist" just two hours after being sworn into office, citing the case as evidence that violent political extremism from the left is a real and growing threat. Speaking at the State Department's Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism, Bessent pushed back against critics who have questioned the Trump administration's focus on violent far-left extremist groups. "I'm going to remind everyone in this room — and all the media — that I was the subject of an assassination attempt by an addled left-wing activist two hours after being sworn into my job," Bessent said. "Any of you who want to report that this is a fiction and does not exist, be there for the sentencing this August." Bessent appeared to be referring to Ryan Michael English, a 24-year-old Massachusetts man who pleaded guilty in March to charges related to attempting to assassinate the then-Treasury secretary nominee at the U.S. Capitol, and is scheduled to be sentenced on August 14. Bessent argued that political violence cannot exist without financial support, saying, "Violence requires money, channels through which funding can move, and institutions behind which it can hide." "At President Trump's direction, Treasury is expanding its efforts to identify organizations that abuse charitable and nonprofit structures as vehicles for illicit finance," Bessent said. He added that the department is examining whether tax-exempt organizations have been exploited as "financial conduits for foreign-influence activity" or have enabled political violence. Bessent said the effort would draw on Treasury's financial enforcement authorities, including the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which have long been used to target terrorist financing and sanctions evasion. He said the administration intends to apply those same tools to disrupt the financial networks supporting violent far-left extremist groups.