Trump’s New Counterterrorism Strategy Lists ‘Violent Left-Wing Extremists’ at Home as Major Threat

The Trump administration’s new national counterterrorism strategy states that a major target for the intelligence and law enforcement communities will be left-wing groups which express “anti-American” or “radically pro-transgender” views, according to the document released by the White House on Wednesday. The stated goals of the counterterrorism strategy come less than one year after administration officials promised to go after left-wing groups in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. The 16-page document made public on Wednesday focuses on three major threat groups to the United States — cartels, Islamic terrorist organizations, and violent left-wing groups, including anarchists and anti-fascists. “We can defeat every single one of these groups, but the threat is significant and pervasive,” the document states. “Americans have witnessed the politically motivated killings of Christians and conservatives committed by violent left-wing extremists, including the assassination of Charlie Kirk by a radical who espoused extreme transgender ideologies.”Following Kirk’s assassination last September, members of the administration — many of whom were exceptionally close to the conservative activist — promised to dismantle any organizations which may have played a role in inspiring the shooting. The alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, had a transgender-identifying partner and believed Kirk was a malevolent force in America because of his conservative activism, law enforcement has claimed. No other person or group has been charged with playing a role in the murder. After the assassination, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said on an episode of Kirk’s daily livestream show that the administration would “identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy” liberal NGO “networks.”“There’s incredible anger, and the thing about anger is that unfocused anger or blind rage is not a productive emotion,” Mr. Miller said at the time. “But focused anger, righteous anger directed for a just cause is one of the most important agents of change in human history.”“Charlie showed that. Amen,” Vice President JD Vance, who was the guest host for the show that day, responded. “We are going to channel all of the anger that we have over the organized campaign that led to this assassination to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks,” Mr. Miller said. The attempts to dismantle left-wing groups became especially important for administration officials in the wake of Kirk’s assassination last year. During the first Trump administration, Antifa — the anti-fascist grassroots group which has been involved in multiple violent protests across the country in recent years — was not designated as a domestic terrorist group until after Kirk’s death. In the 2018 national counterterrorism strategy document, which was signed by Mr. Trump, there is no mention of threats posed by domestic left-wing organizations or actors. Two weeks after Kirk’s murder, Mr. Trump signed a national security memorandum known as NSPM-7, which was meant to begin the process of targeting left-wing organizations and non-governmental groups which may be involved in either actively plotting or tacitly inspiring violence. “A new law enforcement strategy that investigates all participants in these criminal and terroristic conspiracies — including the organized structures, networks, entities, organizations, funding sources, and predicate actions behind them — is required,” that memo states.

Trump’s New Counterterrorism Strategy Lists ‘Violent Left-Wing Extremists’ at Home as Major Threat

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