- In fall 2025, claims spread that several officials of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump were moving to military bases in or near Washington, D.C., for security reasons.
- The claims came from two separate reports, one in The Atlantic, the other in The New York Times, published on Oct. 30, 2025. The two stories named several officials, citing anonymous sources.
- Snopes was able to verify independently that the claim was true for one of those officials, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
- We awaited a response regarding the whereabouts of others: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, Navy Secretary John Phelan and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. We will update this report should they respond.
In fall 2025, a rumor began to spread that officials of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump were moving to residences on military bases in or near Washington, D.C., citing security concerns.
For example, the claim appeared on Instagram, posted with a graphic that included the photographs of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and said these officials wanted to “separate themselves from the public” (archived):
The post had gained more than 20,000 likes as of this writing. The claim also appeared on Threads and Facebook.
The rumor stemmed from an Oct. 30, 2025, report by The Atlantic. The same day, The New York Times published its own report, independently confirming some of the details first reported by The Atlantic and adding others. We contacted the reporters for each article asking how they became aware of the fact that several Trump officials were moving onto military bases. We await a response.
We also reached out to the White House, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense seeking more details on the lodgings of the various officials named in the reports. As of this writing, only DHS replied, confirming Noem lived in a military facility. We will update this story if others respond.
While it is true Noem has moved to a Coast Guard facility, we could not confirm that other members of the administration had done so as well, in part because both news outlets relied on anonymous sources for their reports. Since we cannot independently confirm the reporting, we left the claim unrated.
The Atlantic said Miller, Noem, Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll were among “at least six” Trump administration officials who moved to military bases. The report said Driscoll reportedly shares a home with another official. The New York Times said separately Navy Secretary John Phelan lived in the same location as Driscoll, but did not say whether the two shared a home. Phelan moved in after a fire reportedly damaged his home. The New York Times did not discuss Miller and his family.
The Atlantic also listed another unnamed official, who the report said had moved into military facilities after the death of Charlie Kirk, the conservative pundit and co-founder of Turning Point USA who was shot in Utah in September 2025. The report did not give more details due to “security concerns related to a specific foreign threat.”
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also sought to move to a military facility, but was told there was no availability, according to The Atlantic.
Both reports said that the officials had begun to move to military bases for security reasons as several of them had been or felt threatened. The Atlantic said neighbors of the Millers had protested their presence in the area of North Arlington, Virginia, where the couple own a home (the house is now for sale for $3.75 million, Snopes was able to confirm using the real estate websites Redfin (archived) and Zillow). Washingtonian, a magazine and website, also reported on the protests against the Millers.
Noem moved “into the home designated for the Coast Guard commandant on Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling,” The Atlantic said. A spokeswoman for DHS, Tricia McLaughlin, said in an email that Noem’s housing situation was not the “commandant’s home” but a “Coast Guard government representation facility.”
“Secretary Noem is paying fair market value for her temporary use of the facility as she faces heightened security threats following the publication of her apartment by a tabloid,” McLaughlin said.
The Atlantic said Hegseth and Rubio live at Fort Lesley J. McNair. Driscoll and Phelan live at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall. Gabbard had inquired about Fort McNair. Neither report included details about the Miller family’s new home.
The Atlantic and The New York Times both said that while other civilian officials had moved to military facilities in the past, the large number of officials doing this in the Trump administration was both representative of growing safety concerns for these officials amid an increasingly tense political landscape and a problem for housing for top military officers in Washington.
