Iran just sent a package to MacDill Air Force Base that the FBI found filled with possible explosive materials.
Now a second threat has locked down the same base that is commanding the entire war against Tehran.
DeSantis just told Floridians exactly who is standing between them and the next attack.
MacDill Air Force Base: Two Threats in Three Days at the Heart of CENTCOM
MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa is not just any base.
It is the headquarters of U.S. Central Command – the nerve center running every bomb drop, every strike sortie, every kill order inside Operation Epic Fury.
The generals making decisions that are crushing Iran's nuclear program wake up every morning at that base.
Iran knows exactly what that means.
This week, the FBI screened a suspicious package at MacDill's Dale Mabry Gate visitor center and found what they described as "possible energetic materials."
https://twitter.com/DefiantLs/status/2032922213427314957?s=20
Final lab results are still pending.
The base raised its security level to FPCON Charlie – the second-highest security alert in the U.S. military's threat posture system.
Less than two days later, a second threat forced the entire base into shelter-in-place.
MacDill's gates slammed shut at 11:24 a.m. and didn't reopen until 2:08 p.m.
That is not a drill.
That is Iran reaching into Tampa Bay.
Gov. Ron DeSantis addressed the incidents Thursday in Bradenton, telling reporters he has confidence the Trump administration is handling it.
"Our guys will help at the state level when they're requested," DeSantis said.
He added that on threats involving drones and intelligence operations, "the feds are going to have the intelligence and the information on that."
DeSantis wasn't sugarcoating it.
"We always have concern just because our military bases are always a target," he said, noting that President Trump's Mar-a-Lago faces the same reality from across the state.
Iran's 47-Year History of Terrorism Against Americans
DeSantis is right that this is nothing new.
https://twitter.com/Floridianpress/status/2034815181474218365?s=20
Iran has been targeting Americans at home and abroad for nearly five decades.
The White House published the record this month.
It is staggering.
Iran-backed Hezbollah killed 241 U.S. Marines in Beirut in 1983.
Iran's proxies killed three U.S. soldiers in Jordan in January 2024 alone.
Between October 2023 and November 2024, Iran and its proxies launched more than 180 attacks against U.S. forces across the Middle East.
In November 2024 – just months before Trump returned to the White House – an Iranian national and IRGC asset was charged with plotting to assassinate Trump himself.
DeSantis named it plainly: "Iran itself has had people come to the United States in the past, and they've obviously done a lot of fomenting terrorism in the Middle East. And that's going to continue. That's just who they are."
Operation Epic Fury launched February 28 and has now struck more than 7,800 targets inside Iran.
Three MacDill airmen were among the six killed when a KC-135 tanker crashed in Iraq on March 12.
The base commanding the war just buried three of its own – and now someone mailed it a package with explosive materials.
U.S. Northern Command had already locked down every military installation in the country when Epic Fury launched – 100 percent ID checks, constant vehicle searches, the Trusted Traveler Program suspended entirely.
Iran tested it anyway.
Iranian Sleeper Cell Threat Forces Federal Response
DeSantis signaled confidence that Trump's team has the intelligence picture the state cannot access.
"There's a lot of this stuff that the feds keep close hold and they will act appropriately," he said.
"Hopefully they're able to get the job done if it comes to that."
That deference is exactly right.
This is not a situation for gubernatorial press conferences.
The IRGC does not coordinate with state police.
https://twitter.com/ReOpenChris/status/2035006759329235050?s=20
Iranian sleeper networks – ICE arrested 130 and detained 670 Iranian nationals in June 2025 alone amid concerns about retaliatory cell activity – operate at a federal intelligence level.
DHS has already warned publicly about the potential for Iranian-backed cyber attacks and terrorism on American soil.
The White House reports that 94 percent of MAGA-aligned Americans support Operation Epic Fury.
They should understand that the war is not just happening in the skies above Tehran.
It arrived at a Tampa Bay gate this week, in a package with possible explosives, addressed to the base running the whole operation.
Trump warned Iran that any retaliation would be met with "a force that has never been seen before."
The package at MacDill is exactly the kind of move the administration has been preparing for.
DeSantis is right to trust them.
The only question is whether the FBI finds who sent it before they try again.
Sources:
- A.G. Gancarski, "Ron DeSantis says feds will handle terrorism in state should it happen," Florida Politics, March 19, 2026.
- "MacDill AFB lifts shelter in place after second security incident in recent days," Stars and Stripes, March 18, 2026.
- "MacDill Air Force Base reopens after shelter in place issued for security threat," Fox 13 Tampa Bay, March 18, 2026.
- "The Iranian Regime's Decades of Terrorism Against American Citizens," WhiteHouse.gov, March 2026.
- "Operation Epic Fury: Decisive American Power to Crush Iran's Terror Regime," WhiteHouse.gov, March 2026.
- "Americans Agree that Operation Epic Fury Is an Overwhelming Success," WhiteHouse.gov, March 20, 2026.
- "Operation Epic Fury was US' 'last, best chance to strike' Iran, Trump says," Fox News, March 2026.
