In September, Trump issued an executive order claiming to designate “Antifa” as a “domestic terrorist organization” and a presidential memorandum (NSPM-7) that targets charities and advocacy groups over alleged national security concerns.
These efforts were seemingly driven by the assassination of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk, which the Trump administration has continually blamed on the left despite a complete lack of evidence.
“The last message that Charlie sent me … was that we needed to have an organized strategy to go after the left-wing organizations that are promoting violence in this country,” declared White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller shortly after Kirk’s killing. “With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks.”
While Kirk’s death provided the spark for Trump’s recent moves, the administration’s war on the left effectively began with its targeting of Palestine advocates.
Almost immediately upon arriving in the White House, the Trump team revoked visas, snatched people off the streets, detained legal citizens, and launched a McCarthyite campaign against university administrations for allowing anti-Israel sentiment to foment on their campuses.
“We ought to get them all out of the country,” declared Trump, referring to students who protested the genocide. “They’re troublemakers. They’re agitators. They don’t love our country. We ought to get them the hell out.”
The group Palestine Legal, which defends individuals targeted over Palestine advocacy, says it received over 2,000 requests for legal support in 2024, the year following the October 7 attack. That was 55% increase from 2023, and a 600% increase from 2022. Roughly two-thirds of the requests were campus related.
Palestine Legal staff attorney Dylan Saba tells Mondoweiss that the U.S. Constitution and past Supreme Court interpretations of U.S. terrorism prohibit the Trump administration from simply declaring groups as terror organizations, as Palestine Action was in the UK.
“The administration is trying to push a conspiratorial narrative that dovetails with their broader attacks on organizing, but the administration has not created new legal authorities,” said Saba. “Something like NSPM-7 invokes legal categories that don’t really exist. What they’re doing is directing the law enforcement infrastructure that already exists to target certain groups.”
“They are trying to manufacture consent for the targeting of their political opponents, but also perpetuate a climate chill,” he added. “Fundamentally, what they are seeking to do is in violation of the First Amendment. They want to go after people based on their beliefs.”
And the presidential memorandum hasn’t been the only tactic. In recent months, multiple Republican lawmakers have taken aim at the tax status of pro-Palestine groups.
In August, Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent calling on the IRS to investigate Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) over alleged “ties to terrorism.”
At a panel at the second annual People’s Conference for Palestine later that month, PYM’s Aisha Nizar made a reference to Palestine activists potentially disrupting the F-35 supply chain.
These remarks led to another letter from Cotton, this one to FBI Director Kash Patel.
“Nizar’s statements constitute direct incitement of violence against U.S. national security interests by advocating for actions against the men and women who build the F-35 and seeking to imperil the delivery of one of the nation’s most strategic assets,” claimed the Senator. “I urge the Federal Bureau of Investigation to immediately examine Nizar’s actions and take any necessary actions to mitigate the threat. The U.S. defense supply chain is a key to our military’s ability to fight and win wars. We must protect that supply chain from all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
In September, Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) sent a letter to The People’s Forum, demanding financial records and declaring that the pro-Palestine organization should lose its nonprofit status over alleged connections to the Chinese government.
“Since Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023, The People’s Forum has been responsible for an endless amount of chaos and disruption around the country,” reads Smith’s letter.
In targeting Palestine advocates or investigations, Trump and his allies are building on groundwork previously laid by pro-Israel organizations, who have spent decades pushing such moves.
In targeting Palestine advocates or investigations, Trump and his allies are building on groundwork previously laid by pro-Israel organizations, who have spent decades pushing such moves.
Shortly before the 2024 election, the Heritage Foundation unveiled Project Esther, a proposal ostensibly aimed at combating antisemitism, but actually designed to crush the Palestine solidarity movement.
Project Esther imagines a “Hamas Support Network” (HSN) throughout the United States, which includes groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC), American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
The Trump administration has implemented many of Project Esther’s recommendations, particularly its calls to crack down on the “HSN” on college campuses.
“I don’t think the impact of the Heritage Foundation can be overstated,” Defending Rights & Dissent policy director Chip Gibbons told Mondoweiss. “It’s very difficult to think of any private institute that has so dramatically influenced national security policy over the last 50 years.”
Gibbons also cited Capital Research Center (CRC), a conservative watchdog that tracks the finances of left organizations, as an administration influence. He points out that the FBI has historically used such right-wing, McCarthyite sources to pick targets for investigations.
In September, the Justice Department referred to a report by CRC while calling for federal prosecutors to investigate the liberal billionaire George Soros.
The Trump administration claimed that the CRC report showed how Soros is financing groups connected to terrorism, but in actuality, it simply showed that Soros’s Open Society network has provided multiple pro-Palestine groups with grants.
Last month, White House officials told Reuters that Trump’s goal was to “destabilize Soros’ network” and identified nine progressive organizations that they claim have financed violent protests, including JVP and IfNotNow.
Speaking to the New York Times, CRC president Scott Walter admitted that the group didn’t actually connect Soros to terrorism or violence in any way.
“We were surprised when the Justice Department suggested federal prosecutors use our report,” he explained.
So far, organizations that have been signaled out and targeted are not backing down.
“In the face of such blatant attempts to chill protest and shutter civil society, we will only get bolder and more defiant in our defense of freedom and democracy – from Palestine/Israel to the U.S.,” JVP Executive Director Stefanie Fox said in a statement.
Re: “The last message that Charlie sent me … was that we needed to have an organized strategy to go after the left-wing organizations that are promoting violence in this country,” declared White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller shortly after Kirk’s killing.”
That wasn’t Antifa. See: Kyle’s mom confronts Netanyahu in South Park Gaza war episode: ‘You’re making life for Jews miserable’: Sheila Broflovski flies to Israel to call out the PM, accusing him of fanning antisemitism with the war against Hamas’. Times of Israel
I remember Charlie Kirk as the one promoting violence. I never saw any reason to take his advice to solve the problem. He questioned why the assailant was still in jail, just two days after he had broken into Nancy Pelosi’s home and attempted to murder Paul Pelosi. Her husband had just come out of surgery for a fractured skull and brain injury:
“In response to David DePape’s arrest over the weekend, conservative radio talkshow host Charlie Kirk encouraged his audience Monday to bail the man who attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer Friday out of jail.
During his livestream show on Monday, the Turning Point USA founder also dismissed the idea that “Republican rhetoric” inspired the assault on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband. Paul Pelosi remains hospitalized after undergoing surgery for a fractured skull and other injuries.”
See: Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk Encourages Audience to Post Bail for Paul Pelosi’s Attacker: ‘Why Is He Still in Jail?’ (Video)
David DePape was convicted of State and Federal charges and was sentenced to life without parole.
Trumps only reaction was to say: “We’ll stand up to crazy Nancy Pelosi, who ruined San Francisco — how’s her husband doing, anybody know?” Trump said to a raucous crowd of California Republicans at a state party convention. “And she’s against building a wall at our border, even though she has a wall around her house — which obviously didn’t do a very good job.” — Politico
Donald Trump Jr. shared an image on social media of a hammer and a pair of underwear with the caption “Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready,” See: Donald Trump Jr.’s reaction to Paul Pelosi’s attack shows exactly how low we have sunk
What a DESPICABLE duo…
….”we needed to have an organized strategy to go after the left-wing organizations that are promoting violence…With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks.”
“the administration’s war on the left effectively began with its targeting of Palestine advocates…
for allowing anti-Israel sentiment to foment on their campuses.”
_______________________________________________________
Questionable anti-Israel sentiment was “evidenced” by placards and chants like “Globalize the Intifada”, “Any Means Necessary”, and “Free Palestine”.