WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump signed a memorandum late this afternoon directing federal law enforcement to intensify investigations into liberal groups, framing the move as part of a broader effort to combat domestic terrorism and target political opponents. While not Pagan-specific, it signals a wider expansion of federal punitive power, which can affect all minority or politically unpopular groups if prosecutions are brought under politicized pretenses.
“This is the first time in American history that there is an all-of-government effort to dismantle left-wing terrorism,” said White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
The memo is on the heels of a previous executive order sign on September 22, 2025, designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, though legal experts note the group is decentralized and not a formal entity.
FBI Director Kash Patel emphasized that investigators would pursue funding sources for such groups. “We are properly going to chase them down like the domestic terrorists that they are,” Patel said.
The memorandum tasks the FBI’s National Joint Terrorism Task Force with coordinating a national strategy to investigate, prosecute, and disrupt individuals and organizations accused of political violence or intimidation. It further instructs the Task Force to examine both institutional and individual funders, as well as officers and employees of organizations alleged to be providing support.
Agencies, including the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service, will take part, and Attorney General Pam Bondi is ordered to compile a list of groups to designate as domestic terrorist organizations.
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The memorandum follows Trump’s claims that the “radical left” was responsible for Kirk’s killing and other recent violent incidents, including a deadly shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas, though officials have released little information about the motive. The White House has also labeled Antifa a domestic terrorist organization, despite its lack of formal leadership or centralized structure.
“These campaigns often begin by isolating and dehumanizing specific targets to justify murder or other violent action against them. They do so through a variety of fora, including anonymous chat forums, in-person meetings, social media, and even educational institutions, ” the memorandum reads.
Trump has publicly pressed Bondi to pursue charges against several high-profile critics, including former FBI Director James Comey, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and New York Attorney General Letitia James. He also singled out liberal donors George Soros and Reid Hoffman as possible targets of investigation.
Soros’ Open Society Foundations rejected the accusations, calling them “politically motivated attacks on civil society.” The group stressed its activities are lawful, its grantees are bound by human rights principles, and the administration’s actions represent a threat to free expression.
The memorandum follows heightened political tensions after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and a recent shooting at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas. Law enforcement officials said the suspect in Kirk’s killing, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, held leftist views but had no known ties to organized groups. Patel later posted photos of bullets from the Dallas shooting inscribed with “ANTI-ICE.”
While the administration has focused on left-wing violence, it has largely downplayed recent attacks tied to the political right, including the June assassination of Minnesota State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, the assault on Paul Pelosi, an arson attack targeting Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
A Cato Institute analysis found 3,597 people were killed in politically motivated attacks in the U.S. between 1975 and September 2025, nearly 3,000 of them on 9/11. Excluding those attacks, the report concluded that right-wing violence accounted for 61% of deaths, Islamist-inspired attacks for 23%, and left-wing violence for 11%.
In a second memorandum, President Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi and the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia to strictly enforce federal death penalty laws in the nation’s capital.
The order cites federal statute 18 U.S.C. § 3591(a), which authorizes capital punishment for the most aggravated crimes, and links the directive to earlier executive actions restoring the federal death penalty and declaring a crime emergency in Washington, D.C.
The memorandum instructs prosecutors to seek the death penalty in all appropriate cases where the evidence justifies it, and to pursue federal jurisdiction wherever possible for capital-eligible crimes committed in the District.
Trump said the move is part of his administration’s continuing efforts to reduce violent crime in Washington and to ensure “the most heinous crimes” receive the harshest punishment.
This is a developing story.
Reference:
White House Memorandum: Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence
White House Memorandum: Enforcing the Death Penalty Laws in the District of Columbia to Deter and Punish the Most Heinous Crimes
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