Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Develops New Strategy to Counter Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence

COUNTERING DOMESTIC TERRORISM: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM) establishing a comprehensive strategy to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle all stages of organized political violence and domestic terrorism.

• The NSPM directs the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTFs) to coordinate this national strategy to investigate, prosecute, and disrupt entities and individuals engaged in political violence and intimidation designed to suppress lawful activity or obstruct the rule of law.
  • This approach will focus on all aspects of the organized strategy that results in political violence and intimidation, including radicalization, recruitment, funding mechanisms, non-governmental organization involvement, related financial crimes, and the ultimate acts of political violence and intimidation themselves, using authorities across the entire Federal government and a broader investigative focus.
• The NSPM requires the Attorney General to prosecute all Federal crimes related to organized political violence. The Attorney General is also directed to issue guidance that ensures domestic terrorism priorities include politically motivated terrorist acts like organized doxing campaigns, swatting, rioting, and property crimes. The guidance will also identify behaviors, fact patterns, and recurrent motivations common to organizations and entities that coordinate these acts in order to stop political violence before it occurs.
• The NSPM instructs the Secretary of the Treasury to identify and disrupt financial networks that fund domestic terrorism and political violence, and directs the IRS Commissioner to ensure tax-exempt entities do not directly or indirectly finance political violence or domestic terrorism, referring violators to the Department of Justice.
• It instructs the Attorney General to recommend groups or entities who meet specific criteria for potential designation as “domestic terrorist organizations.”
• It directs the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security to designate domestic terrorism a “National Priority Area,” in order to allocate funds and resources to protect against this threat.

DISRUPTING ORGANIZED POLITICAL VIOLENCE: The surge in political violence in the United States is not random, but rather part of sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation and violence requiring a new law enforcement strategy to fully address and prevent.

• On September 10, beloved conservative leader Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking to college students at Utah Valley University in a horrific act of political violence.
• This assassination is just the latest alarming escalation in an unmistakable pattern of political violence and domestic terrorism.
  • The attempted assassination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the two attempts on President Trump’s life in 2024, and the 2024 assassination of a senior healthcare executive are just a few examples of this rampant and escalating threat to public order and a functioning democratic society.
• Anti-police and “criminal justice” riots have left many dead and injured, and have inflicted over $2 billion in property damage nationwide.
• Attacks on ICE officers have increased by more than 1,000% since January 21, 2025.
  • Just yesterday, a shooting targeting an ICE facility in Dallas resulted in multiple casualties.
• This political violence emerges from coordinated efforts to isolate and dehumanize specific targets to justify murder or violent action, obstruct law enforcement and the operations of the Federal government, and radicalize and recruit participants, all under the umbrella of self-described “anti-fascism” and anti-American principles.
• 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 in order to prevent this violence and fully address this threat to the Nation.

UPHOLDING AMERICAN VALUES: Political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives, undermining our American values of free speech, citizenship, the rule of law, patriotic and familial devotion, and love of God.

• President Trump: “For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie [Kirk] to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now. My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity, and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country.”
• President Trump has promoted patriotism through initiatives like the America 250 Task Force and expanded civics education to foster national pride and unity.
• President Trump has strengthened free speech protections by directing agencies to combat censorship and ensure all Americans can speak their minds without fear of political or violent retribution.
• President Trump restored order in the nation’s capital by declaring a crime emergency in Washington, D.C., ensuring the protection of residents, Federal workers, and institutions of democracy.
• President Trump designated Antifa a domestic terrorist organization, directing the Federal government to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle all illegal operations conducted by Antifa or any person claiming to act on behalf of Antifa.