Federal law enforcement agencies confirmed on Wednesday and Friday that numerous nominees to Donald Trump’s presidential cabinet and Democrats in Congress received bomb threats at their homes over the Thanksgiving holiday.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confirmed on Wednesday that Donald Trump’s presidential cabinet nominees had been the subject of threats on Tuesday and Wednesday.

A statement released by the agency said, “The FBI is aware of numerous bomb threats and swatting incidents targeting incoming administration nominees and appointees, and we are working with our law enforcement partners.”

The FBI statement continued, “We take all potential threats seriously and, as always, encourage members of the public to immediately report anything they consider suspicious to law enforcement.”

As of this writing, no further details about the individual nominees or the nature or location of the threats has been provided by the FBI. “Swatting” is the practice of placing a prank phone call to emergency services and providing information intended to bring about the dispatch of armed police officers or special weapons and tactical (SWAT) teams to a particular business location or residential address.

On Wednesday, Trump transition team spokesperson Karen Leavitt issued a statement via Twitter/X that said “several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and Administration appointees were targeted” on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Leavitt added that Trump and the transition team were “focused on doing the work of uniting our nation by ensuring a safe and prosperous future.”

Late Wednesday morning, Fox News Digital reported that nearly a dozen of Trump’s nominees and appointees to the incoming administration were the subjects of threats.

The New York Times reported that three unnamed people who are familiar with the threats and the ongoing investigation into them said one of those targeted was Susie Wiles, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, whom the incoming president named as his White House chief of staff.

On Friday, US Capitol police said they were investigating a round of threats against Democratic Party lawmakers. At least six Democrats in Congress said they were targeted with bomb threats over the Thanksgiving holiday.

On Thursday, four Democratic representatives from Connecticut—Representatives Joe Courtney, Jim Himes, John Larson and Jahana Hayes—said they were targeted with bomb threats while celebrating Thanksgiving with their families at home.

The office of Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut also said he was targeted. Murphy’s office said his Hartford home was the target of the threat, “which appears to be part of a coordinated effort involving multiple members of Congress and public figures.”

Two sources told CNN that law enforcement is investigating whether there is any connection between the threats sent to Congressional Democrats and those sent to Trump officials earlier in the week.

Among Trump’s cabinet picks who issued their own statements on social media about the threats are New York Representative Elise Stefanik, nominee for ambassador to the United Nations; former Long Island Congressman Lee Zeldin, nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency; Texas lawyer Brooke Rollins, nominee for agriculture secretary; and Oregon Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer, whom Trump has chosen to head the Department of Labor.

Stefanik’s statement on Twitter/X said she and her husband were driving home to Saratoga County with their three-year-old son for Thanksgiving when they were informed by police of “a bomb threat to their residence.”

Zeldin posted on Twitter/X, “A pipe bomb threat targeting me and my family at our home today was sent in with a pro-Palestinian themed message.” Zeldin thanked law enforcement for its “swift actions” and said he and his family were not home at the time.

Rollins issued a statement on Twitter/X that said, “This morning, we learned that a threat was issued against our home and family” in the Fort Worth, Texas, area. She said they were unharmed and returned quickly to their home.

The New York Times reported that Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald chief executive Howard Lutnick, also received threats at his home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan on Wednesday, “according to two people with knowledge of the incident.”

Others who posted news of threats on Twitter/X included Chavez-DeRemer and former “Fox & Friends Weekend” host Pete Hegseth, who is Trump’s pick for secretary of defense.

The Oskaloosa County Sheriff’s Office published a statement on Facebook that said former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz had been the subject of a bomb threat at a home in the Niceville area near Pensacola on Wednesday morning. The report said a family member was residing at the location, and Gaetz did not live there.

The threats against the nominees and lawmakers take place within an atmosphere of increasing political violence in the US, which has been intensifying since the first election campaign for president and first administration of Donald Trump in the years 2017-2021. The high point of the violence occurred on January 6, 2021, when Trump and his fascist supporters in and around the Republican Party mobilized a mob to violently attack the US Capitol and block the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden as president.

The growth of political violence in the US is an expression of the extreme crisis of the capitalist political establishment and the internal warfare that is raging among factions of the ruling elite over domestic and foreign policy. It is a byproduct of the breakdown of democratic forms of rule and the use of far-right and fascist elements as part of the violent realignment of the American political system in correspondence with the reality of extreme social inequality in the country.

The present events follow by more than four months the attempted assassination of then-candidate Trump at an outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 in which Trump was grazed in the ear by a bullet. It also follows by more than two months an attempt on Trump’s life at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida on September 15.

In the first attempt, the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, climbed on top of a building adjacent to the rally and fired eight shots at Trump. In addition to hitting Trump in the upper right ear, Crooks killed one audience member, injured two others and was then killed seconds later by snipers with the US Secret Service.

In the second attempt, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh had been hiding in shrubbery at the golf course, allegedly intending to shoot Trump when he was spotted by Secret Service agents who fired upon him. Routh fled the scene and was later captured by authorities and charged with five federal crimes.

On November 8, three days after the 2024 presidential election, the US Justice Department (DoJ) disclosed the alleged existence of an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Donald Trump. DoJ charged Afghan national Farhad Shakeri, who reportedly said he had been tasked by an Iranian government official with planning the assassination of the Republican president-elect before the election.

The Associated Press reported this week that the authorities arrested a man they claim posted videos on social media threatening to kill Trump. The report said, “In one video posted on Nov. 13, Manuel Tamayo-Torres threatened to shoot the former president while holding what appeared to be an AR-15 style rifle, authorities said.” The AP also reported that Tamayo-Torres posted a video from an arena in Glendale, Arizona, on August 23, the same day Trump held a campaign rally there.

Responding to the threat reports, House Speaker Mike Johnson (Republican-Louisiana) called the threats against President-elect Trump’s nominees and appointees “dangerous and unhinged.” Johnson called on President Biden and other Democratic Party leaders to condemn the incidents.

President Joe Biden said in a statement, “The White House is in touch with federal law enforcement and the President-elect’s team and continues to monitor the situation closely.”

Threats of violence have also been aimed at Trump’s political enemies in both the Republican and Democratic parties. A year ago, the FBI responded to an uptick in such incidents at the homes of public officials and at state capitols and courthouses across the country around the holidays.

Many of these officials were locked down and evacuated in early January after receiving bomb threats. No explosives were found, and no one was hurt. Some of those targeted last year were Georgia Lt. Governor Burt Jones, a Republican; Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, a Democrat; and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican.

During the presidential election campaign, bomb threats were called in at schools, government buildings and the homes of city officials in Springfield, Ohio, after candidate Trump falsely accused members of Springfield’s Haitian community of abducting and eating cats and dogs.