U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday that Iranian leaders were moving money out of the country “like crazy.”
“The rats are leaving the ship, and that is a good sign that they know the end may be near,” Bessent told the committee.
The Treasury Department’s monitoring of Iranian financial transactions is part of the Trump administration’s strategy to put pressure on Iranian leader Ali Khamenei’s Islamic Republic as the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism, Bessent said.
A dollar shortage and collapse of the Iranian currency is causing banks to fail and sparking rocket-high inflation.
The widespread economic hardship and collapse of Iran’s currency sparked massive anti-government protests beginning in December 2025.
Khamenei, 86, crushed protests that swept across the country last month, unleashing his Revolutionary Guard troops against the people in a bloody crackdown that resulted in the deaths of at least 6,400 protesters, according to the Global Conflict Tracker by the Council on Foreign Relations. Another 11,000 death reports are under investigation.
Iranians were cut off from the rest of the world and unable to communicate after the government shut down the internet and began arresting tens of thousands of demonstrators.
President Donald Trump warned Iran’s leadership in January about retaliating against its people and threatened military intervention but stopped short of making immediate plans to strike.
He encouraged Iranians to keep protesting.
“Iranian Patriots, Keep Protesting—take over your institutions!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have canceled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters stops. Help is on its way. MIGA!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social Jan. 13.
Since then, the United States has increased its military presence in and around the Middle East. The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and three destroyers arrived in the region under U.S. Central Command. The USS Delbert D. Black was also sent to the area.
On Jan. 28, Trump warned Iran that if officials didn’t come to the table to negotiate a deal for no nuclear weapons, the country could face another U.S. attack.
“As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “They didn’t, and there was ‘Operation Midnight Hammer,’ a major destruction of Iran. The next attack will be far worse! Don’t make that happen again.”
