The Trump administration has dramatically expanded the official definition of “terrorism” and is already getting accused Antifa members to enter responsible pleas for “offering materials help to terrorists.”
NSPM-7 Casts a Very Vast Internet
We’ve coated Trump’s September 25 Nationwide Safety Presidential Memorandum titled Countering Home Terrorism and Organized Political Violence (NSPM-7) beforehand.
Trump’s Deputy Chief of Employees Stephen Miller referred to as NSPM-7, “The primary time in American historical past that there’s an all-of-government effort to dismantle left wing terrorism.”
Ken Klippenstein described the memo thus:
In NSPM-7, “Countering Home Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” President Trump directs the Justice Division, the FBI, and different nationwide safety companies and departments to struggle his model of political violence in America, retooling a community of Joint Terrorism Process Forces to give attention to “leftist” political violence in America. This huge counterterrorism military, made up of federal, state, and native brokers would, as Trump aide Stephen Miller stated, kind “the central hub of that effort.”
NSPM-7 directs a brand new nationwide technique to “disrupt” any particular person or teams “that foment political violence,” together with “earlier than they end in violent political acts.”
In different phrases, they’re focusing on pre-crime, to reference Minority Report.
The Trump administration isn’t solely focusing on organizations or teams however even people and “entities” whom NSPM-7 says might be recognized by any of the next “indicia” (indicators) of violence:
- anti-Americanism,
- anti-capitalism,
- anti-Christianity,
- help for the overthrow of america Authorities,
- extremism on migration,
- extremism on race,
- extremism on gender
- hostility in direction of those that maintain conventional American views on household,
- hostility in direction of those that maintain conventional American views on faith, and
- hostility in direction of those that maintain conventional American views on morality.
“America requires a nationwide technique to analyze and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence in order that legislation enforcement can intervene in prison conspiracies earlier than they end in violent political acts,” the directive states (emphasis mine).
NSPM-7 painted in broad strokes, now the Trump crew is filling within the particulars.
Bondi Releases a Tactical Roadmap
In December, Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi launched a memo “On Countering Home Terrorism And Organized Political Violence” that Klippenstein described as “the conflict plan for a way the federal government will wage (conflict on nearly anybody who isn’t MAGA) on a tactical stage.”
Bondi’s memo opens with a piece titled, “Defining the home terrorism menace” which incorporates this sentence: “For some culpable actors, equivalent to sure Antifa-aligned extremists, their animating precept is adherence to the forms of excessive viewpoints on immigration, radical gender ideology, and anti-American sentiment listed beneath, with a willingness to make use of violence in opposition to law-abiding citizenry to serve these beliefs.”
The memo additionally vows that “the place home terrorism is encountered or suspected, legislation enforcement companies shall refer such issues to the Joint Terrorism Process Forces (JTTFs) for the exhaustive investigation contemplated by NSPM-7.”
Bondi additionally defines acts of home terrorism as:
Such acts could embody organized rioting, looting, doxing, and swatting; and conspiracies to impede or assault legislation enforcement, destroy property, or interact in violent civil dysfunction. Regulation enforcement companies shall refer these issues to the JTTFs for investigation. Upon receipt of those referrals, the JTTFs shall use all accessible investigative instruments, in step with legislation enforcement inside insurance policies and statutory obligations, to map the complete community of culpable actors concerned within the referred conduct inside and outdoors america.
Word the inclusion of “doxing” within the record of proscribed acts.
Doxing Contains What Precisely?
Purpose.com elaborated on the memo’s inclusion of “doxing”:
Whereas undefined within the memo, “doxing” on this context is known to imply the publishing of data that identifies legislation enforcement officers, which the Justice Division insinuates is a threatening exercise used to “silence opposing speech, restrict political exercise, change or direct coverage outcomes, and stop the functioning of a democratic society.”
This definition mirrors earlier statements by DHS officers earlier this 12 months, together with an announcement made by Noem in July: “Violence is something that threatens [agents] and their security, so it’s doxing them, it’s videotaping them the place they’re at once they’re out on operations.”
Nevertheless, a lot of what the Trump administration tries to color because the unacceptable “doxing” of legislation enforcement brokers is usually observers merely recording on-duty officers—an exercise firmly protected by the First Modification when no bodily interference or hazard is current, and an necessary device for holding public officers accountable. By broadly defining home terrorism to incorporate one thing as obscure as “doxing,” the Trump administration has rolled out a “nationwide coverage of intimidating and threatening individuals who try to watch and file DHS operations,” based on David Bier, the director of immigration research on the Cato Institute.
Underneath such a broad definition, even the DHS’ personal digital camera crews and media employed particularly to file and publish particulars of immigration operations may probably be prosecuted for home terrorism. The one limiting issue within the memo appears to be whether or not the writer is taken into account Trump’s political ally or opponent, i.e., an “Antifa-aligned extremist,” which the December 4 memo defines, partly, as somebody with “excessive viewpoints on immigration,” equivalent to “mass migration and open borders.”
Bondi’s memo does greater than proscribe protected First Modification actions, it additionally mandates an FBI tipline.
FBI To Open Tipline for Tattlers
Klippenstein describes the incentives outlined in Bondi’s memo:
Bondi directs the FBI to boost the capabilities (and publicity) of its tipline with a view to extra aggressively solicit suggestions from the American public on, effectively, different People. To that finish, Bondi additionally directs the FBI to determine “a money reward system” for info resulting in identification and arrest of management figures inside these purported home terrorist organizations. (The memo later instructs the FBI to “set up cooperators to offer info and ultimately testify in opposition to different members” of the teams.)
The payouts don’t finish there. Justice Division grants at the moment are to prioritize funding to packages for state and native legislation enforcement to go after home terrorism.
One has to surprise if the type of organized opposition ICE encountered in Chicago will fall beneath the mandate of NSPM-7.
Neighborhoods Organized to Resist ICE
Melissa Gira Grant reported on “a community of rapid-response teams which have sprung up over the previous couple of months to guard immigrant communities from the Trump administration’s brutal, far-reaching “mass deportation” program” for The New Republic.
Gira Grant particulars the authorized steps taken by Illinois elected officers (a few of which I’ve coated right here beforehand):
The mayor signed an govt order designating city-owned property as “ICE Free Zones.” A federal choose required a few of these overseeing the operation, equivalent to Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, to testify beneath oath, and set schedules for them to replace the court docket on the operation. However neither political nor authorized interventions have managed to meaningfully interrupt what’s happening. ICE-free zones, residents report, don’t cease ICE. And the slow-moving authorized system can’t forestall brokers from violating residents’ constitutional rights; certainly, the system largely features to supply redress after the very fact. Even when courts have ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement or CBP to stop some violent motion, equivalent to lobbing tear fuel into residential neighborhoods, brokers ignored them. The scores of terrifying arrests continued.
Gira Grant contrasts the acts of the electeds with the neighborhood response to ICE:
The one response that has been genuinely efficient has come from neighborhood members—strange residents who’ve come collectively, educated each other, and linked throughout neighborhoods to kind teams just like the Southwest Facet Speedy Response Crew. They’ve eyes on the road, the belief of their neighbors, and the flexibility to intervene virtually instantaneously, sharing info with the ICE-activity hotline that operates throughout the state. They will file proof and go it alongside in seconds to rights teams, information media, and social media. Mixing protest and direct motion, they’re providing one thing concrete to Chicagoans who wish to specific their opposition to Donald Trump’s conflict on immigrants. That is true movement-building, a venture which will endure after this specific menace to immigrant communities, even after this regime. ICE, CBP, and others have violently retaliated in opposition to these teams partly as a result of the companies accurately perceive what many don’t: Organized neighbors are mounting an efficient protection, and an organized motion is a formidable adversary.
DHS was extensively reported to have left Chicago in November, maybe due to the organized resistance it encountered.
Seems Chicago was simply getting a quick respite.
Sorry Cicero, Bovino’s Again
U.S. Customs and Border Safety Commander Gregory Bovino spent a great deal of time in New Orleans in early December, however returned to Illinois on December 17:
Bovino, who was on the middle of a number of use-of-force lawsuits and probably the most violent, controversial actions of Operation Halfway Blitz, was again within the Chicago space Tuesday morning.
The enforcement motion sends a transparent message that though some declared Operation Halfway Blitz to be “over,” it isn’t.
A supply tells CBS Information Chicago this is not going to be the one day the town will see federal brokers out in pressure. A U.S. Division of Homeland Safety spokesperson informed CBS Information that Bovino has quickly come to Chicago to proceed immigration enforcement, and wouldn’t affirm when he intends to return to Louisiana.
In a video shared with CBS Information Chicago by an immigration fast response group, Bovino might be seen on the sidewalk standing with a bunch of Border Patrol brokers, speaking and laughing. The video was taken close to Halfway Worldwide Airport, which isn’t removed from the preliminary sightings of him in Cicero.
Bovino and his crew of brokers in tactical gear wasted no time taking individuals into custody, seemingly at random off the road. Federal brokers sped by means of Little Village, making frequent stops and assembly protesters at each flip.
Neighbors tried to make use of a big rock to dam brokers from making their means down twenty sixth Avenue by means of the neighborhood, however it didn’t work. Teams of residents and protesters had been out all through Little Village, blowing whistles, filming, and confronting brokers as they continued their operations.
If the Chicagoland resistance thought it had run ICE out of city on a rail, they could produce other thinks coming.
DHS Investigations Throughout the Nation
A Guardian piece on FBI “home terrorism investigations” included the beneath map, observe the darkish blue space overlaying Chicagoland:
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) December 29, 2025
Time will inform how Chicago’s organized resistance fares in opposition to an ICE armed with NSPM-7, however up to now a bunch of Texas resisters isn’t faring so effectively.
Antifa Accusations Garner Responsible Pleas
I’ve coated the July 7 incident that U.S. and Texas legislation enforcement is looking the “Prarieland assault” beforehand, however there are new developments.
One other Guardian piece particulars the Trump administration’s “first trophy” in its NSPM-7 marketing campaign:
The justice division introduced it was bringing terrorism costs in opposition to two individuals in Texas who had been a part of a “North Texas antifa cell”. Prosecutors stated the cell had deliberate an assault at ICE’s Prairieland detention facility and ended with two correctional officers being shot at and a police officer sustaining a non-fatal gunshot wound. In the end, 18 individuals had been charged – some donning all black gear, masks and radios – and the federal government stated they’d fastidiously plotted the assault.
It was the primary time the federal government had ever filed terrorism costs in opposition to antifa. In whole, 15 individuals had been charged with offering materials help for terrorism. Additionally they face state costs in addition to quite a few different federal costs regarding rioting, carrying an explosive, firearms, and tried homicide of a federal worker.
…
There isn’t a doubt a police officer was shot on the protest. Prosecutors have additionally introduced costs in opposition to individuals they are saying helped the alleged shooter escape. However the case has drawn appreciable alarm due to the best way that prosecutors have sought to create a prison enterprise – a “North Texas antifa cell” – amongst a bunch of demonstrators who had been uninvolved within the taking pictures. Authorized specialists say it’s a thinly veiled effort to crack down on leftwing teams and deter protesters. Six defendants have already pleaded responsible to offering materials help to terrorists.“It ought to concern everybody else within the nation, as a result of their neighborhood, their circles, could be subsequent,” stated Xavier de Janon, who’s the director of mass protection on the Nationwide Attorneys Guild and has been intently following the case. “This precedent may end in individuals going through terrorism costs for doing quite simple mainstream activism.”
The case is extra advanced than Trump officers have let on, based on a Guardian overview of court docket information and interviews with protection attorneys and relations. The proof up to now raises appreciable questions on whether or not these charged believed they had been going to a protest that might end in violence or destruction of federal property. Members of the family and attorneys for a number of of these charged stated in interviews the defendants had nothing to do with antifa. And specialists say the terrorism costs the federal government has filed don’t have anything to do with the ideology of the defendants.
Maybe most important within the Texas case is the best way that prosecutors have sought to create a prison enterprise – a “North Texas antifa cell” – amongst a bunch of demonstrators, a few of whom say they didn’t know one another and met for the primary time on the protest. Prosecutors have pointed to leftwing zines and flyers seized from the protesters, their use of the encrypted messaging app Sign, all-black clothes worn on the protest, and basic dialogue of firearms to argue that these on the protest had been a part of a terror cell.
Time will inform how profitable the Trump administration will probably be in making use of NSPM-7’s broad definitions of “terrorism” in opposition to these resisting the administration.
For our half, we’ll work to maintain Bare Capitalism readers apprised.
