NSPM-7
2025 US President Trump national security directive
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7), titled "Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence",[1] is a United States National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM) issued by President Donald Trump on September 25, 2025. It tasks federal agencies with dismantling networks associated with politically motivated violence, particularly those linked to "anti-fascism" (often referred to as 'antifa' by Trump), illegal immigration disruptions, and riots.[2][3][4][5] It describes among the "motivations and indicia uniting this pattern of violent and terroristic activities under the umbrella of self-described 'anti-fascism'":
anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality[6]
documentnumber2025-19141
| Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence | |
| |
 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
|---|---|
| Signed | September 25, 2025 |
| Federal Register details | |
| Federal Register document number | 2025-19141 |
| Publication date | September 30, 2025 |
| Document citation | 90 FR 47225 |
documentnumber2025-18709
| |
 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
|---|---|
| Signed | September 22, 2025 |
| Federal Register details | |
| Federal Register document number | 2025-18709 |
| Publication date | September 25, 2025 |
| Document citation | 90 FR 46317 |
Critics of the NSPM-7 are concerned that the broad definitions and targeted enforcement could be used to intimidate or overly scrutinize activist groups, nonprofits, and political opposition.[7] The memorandum follows the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the 2025 Dallas ICE facility shooting that happened the day before. It cites a rise in politically motivated violence, alleging that such violence stems from "sophisticated, organized campaigns" rather than isolated incidents. It directs the Joint Terrorism Task Force to investigate and disrupt organizations involved in political violence, instructs the United States Attorney General to prosecute related federal crimes, and tasks the Treasury Secretary and Commissioner of Internal Revenue with disrupting the funding of such groups. Following the memorandum's issuance, the Trump administration designated Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, and federal prosecutors secured terrorism convictions against protesters linked to the 2025 Prairieland ICE Detention Center incident. Civil liberties organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch, condemned the directive, arguing it could be used to target political opponents and suppress dissent; the Brennan Center for Justice concluded that both the memorandum and the related Antifa designation order were "ungrounded in fact and law."
Background
Current Affairs described the British government's June 23, 2025 proscription of Palestine Action, a Palestine solidarity direct action network based in the UK, as a terrorist organization, as a counterpart to NSPM-7.[8]
Reactions to the assassination of Charlie Kirk
The organized doxxing campaigns, the organized riots, the organized street violence, the organized campaigns of dehumanization, vilification, posting people’s addresses, combining that with messaging that’s designed to trigger, incite violence in the actual organized cells that carry out and facilitate the violence. It is a vast domestic terror movement. ... 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 and make America safe again for the American people.
–Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, speaking with Vice President JD Vance who was hosting The Charlie Kirk Show on September 15 after the assassination of Charlie Kirk [9][10]
After the September 10 assassination of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller alleged there was an "organized campaign that led to this assassination", describing it as a "vast domestic terror movement" that the federal government would pursue with "every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks."[11][12]
Executive order designating of antifa as a domestic terrorist organization
On September 22, Donald Trump signed an executive order[13] designating the anti-fascist political movement antifa as a domestic terror organization.[14][15][16]
Content
The memorandum cites concerns over political violence stemming from "sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation, radicalization, threats, and violence designed to silence opposing speech, limit political activity, change or direct policy outcomes, and prevent the functioning of a democratic society", making specific references to the two assassination attempts against Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign, attacks against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers during 2025 protests in Los Angeles and Portland, "anti-police and 'criminal justice'" riots that "have left many people dead and injured and inflicted over $2 billion in property damage nationwide."[1]
The order alleges: "political violence is not a series of isolated incidents and does not emerge organically. Instead, it is a culmination of sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation, radicalization, threats, and violence." It argues: "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 (...) to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations (...) Through this comprehensive strategy, law enforcement will disband and uproot networks, entities, and organizations that promote organized violence, violent intimidation, conspiracies against rights, and other efforts to disrupt the functioning of a democratic society." The order also claims:
There are common recurrent motivations and indicia uniting this pattern of violent and terroristic activities under the umbrella of self-described “anti-fascism.” These movements portray foundational American principles (e.g., support for law enforcement and border control) as “fascist” to justify and encourage acts of violent revolution. This “anti-fascist” lie has become the organizing rallying cry used by domestic terrorists to wage a violent assault against democratic institutions, constitutional rights, and fundamental American liberties. Common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality. As described in the Order of September 22, 2025 (Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization)
NSPM-7 instructs the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) to "coordinate and supervise a comprehensive national strategy to investigate, prosecute, and disrupt entities and individuals engaged in acts of political violence and intimidation designed to suppress lawful political activity or obstruct the rule of law," and investigate "all participants in these criminal and terroristic conspiracies—including the organized structures, networks, entities, organizations, funding sources, and predicate actions behind them."[1][17]
The United States Attorney General was instructed to prosecute federal crimes related to these investigations, and to "issue specific guidance that ensures domestic terrorism priorities include politically motivated terrorist acts" such as assault, civil disorder, destruction of property, organized doxing, looting, rioting, swatting, threats of violence, and trespass. The Attorney General may also "recommend that any group or entity whose members are engaged in activities meeting the definition of 'domestic terrorism' in 18 U.S.C. 2331(5) merits designation as a 'domestic terrorist organization.'" The Treasury Secretary and Commissioner of Internal Revenue are instructed to disrupt the funding sources of organizations found to be involved in "political violence or domestic terrorism."[1][17][18]
Actions
Three days before the issuance of NSPM-7, Antifa, which is not in fact an "organization," but rather a movement, was designated as a "Domestic Terrorist Organization" under an executive order by President Donald Trump.[19]
The memorandum was subsequently cited in a September 29, 2025, memorandum by the United States Attorney General Pam Bondi titled "Ending Political Violence Against ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]."[20]
In November 2025, the administration announced it would designate four European Antifa groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.[21] The State Department's press release said the designation "supports President Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum-7".[22]
On December 4, 2025, Bondi issued a memo instructing federal prosecutors and law enforcement to investigate Antifa and other "extremist groups" performing "domestic terrorism" activities per NSPM-7 (including "tax crimes" against the IRS), the FBI to compile a list of "domestic terrorism" organizations, and "review their files and holdings for Antifa and Antifa-related intelligence and information and coordinate delivery of such material to the FBI for review."[23][24][25]
Reportedly, according to an internal report, the FBI has launched "criminal and domestic terrorism investigations" into "threats against immigration enforcement activity."[26]
In January 2026, following the killing of Renée Good by an by ICE agent in Minneapolis, Vice President J.D. Vance announced an assistant attorney general, with "all the benefits, all the resources, all the authority of a special counsel, but (...) run out of the White House under the supervision of me and the president", "who is going to prosecute and investigate their fraud and their violence more aggressively" as part of what the administration is doing "to try to find the financing networks and the domestic terrorism networks that legitimate this violence, that fund this violence, and that of course engage in the violence."[27][28]
In March 2026, a jury convicted 9 of providing material support to terrorists for the 2025 Alvarado ICE facility incident in "the first time that terrorism charges had been successfully brought against purported members of Antifa."[29][30][31][32] Later that same month, CBS News reported that the FBI and IRS were forming a new incentive to investigate non-profit organizations over suspected links to domestic terrorism.[33]
In April 2026 Ken Klippenstein reported that in the 2027 fiscal year budget request by Trump, it was stated that the FBI created at some point between September 2025 and March 2026 the "NSPM-7 Joint Mission center" which the budget request described as including people from ten agencies and is tasked to counter targets of NSPM-7 "by integrating intelligence, operational support, and financial analysis" to identify and prosecute targets of NSPM-7 and related actors.[34] The same month Zeteo obtained FBI e-mails which revealed that the FBI was conducting training for U.S. state and local law enforcement on the directive.[35]
In May 2026, an updated United States Counterterrorism strategy released by the White House listed "Violent Left-Wing Extremists, including Anarchists and Anti-Fascists" as a major type of terror group threat to the United States, which it blames for "politically motivated killings of Christians and conservatives," and also targets "violent secular" political groups.[36][37] Ken Klippenstein also suggested that the documents suggest a crackdown on pro-Palestinian groups due to a warning about “New and deepening alliances between the far-left and Islamists, i.e., the 'Red-Green' alliance," with Klippenstein stating that the term "Red-Green alliance" is used to suggest a conspiratorial alignment between the American left and radical Islam.[38]
Prosecutions
A group of alleged antifa members involved in the 2025 Prairieland ICE detention center incident were prosecuted in federal district Court in Fort Worth, Texas. On June 25, 2026, they were sentenced to thirty to hundred years in prison. All the defendants have appealed their convictions.[39]
Another group in Minnesota tracking ICE activity were investigated under NSPM-7 on various charges, including conspiring to impede or injure a federal officer, interstate stalking, felony assault, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, and interstate threats.[40]
Reactions
On September 25, 2025, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) issued a statement condemning the directive, with ACLU's National Security Project director writing, "Working from a fever dream of conspiracies, President Trump has launched yet another effort to investigate and intimidate his critics."[41]
On September 26, Human Rights Watch acting executive director Federico Borello issued a statement writing that "President Trump’s order mobilizing federal law enforcement to investigate perceived opponents of his administration turns reality on its head."[42] On the same day, the National Coalition Against Censorship characterized the directive as a "blueprint for law enforcement to cast a wide net in the name of terrorism and political violence, but it is unmistakable in targeting political opponents in its crosshairs."[43]
By September 30, more than 3,000 NGOs had signed an open letter opposing the directive.[7]
In October, more than 30 members of Congress sent a letter to President Trump raising constitutional and civil liberties issues and expressing concern that NSPM-7 could be used to crack down on dissent.[44][45]
In a newsletter to his constituents, Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna described the memorandum as "one of his [Trump's] most dangerous power grabs yet."[46] Elsewhere, Khanna stated, "The goal is to silence people and groups by threatening retaliation."[17]
On October 1, 2025, Miles Taylor, who served as Chief of Staff of the United States Department of Homeland Security during the first Trump Administration, wrote that the directive was "Orwellian beyond belief."[47]
National security journalist Fred Kaplan wrote that Trump is "laying the groundwork for a police state" with NSPM-7, which he deemed "the clearest statement of Trump's intentions."[48] Investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein characterized the directive as treating political dissent as a form of domestic terrorism[49] and wrote in Truthout that "NSPM-7 a declaration of war on anyone who does not support the Trump administration and its agenda."[50]
The New Republic published that "McCarthyism is so back."[51]
Brennan Center analysis
The Brennan Center for Justice found numerous flaws in an analysis of NSPM-7, along with a concomitant presidential order: "Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization."[52] The Brennan report concluded, "both the order and the memo are ungrounded in fact and law."[53] Among the criticisms:
- Regarding the legal basis, the Brennan report calls out "the failure to cite any statute or constitutional provision in support of the president’s action." The report authors state the president has no authority to declare domestic terrorist organizations, noting that the laws and Supreme Court decisions authorizing the declaration of foreign terrorist organizations had ruled out domestic designations.[53]
- Regarding the factual basis, the Brennan report notes that the "cherry-picked" incidents of violence were not coordinated campaigns of violence and intimidation, as the NSPM memo was constructed to address.[53]
- Regarding the scope of the orders, the Brennan Center report says that the orders could target a broad range of disfavored groups and views, encompassing "everyone from labor organizers, socialists, many libertarians, those who criticize Christianity, pro-immigration groups, anti-ICE protestors, and racial justice and transgender activists, to anyone who holds views that the administration considers to be 'anti-American.'"[53]