The Trump administration’s global campaign against “radical left terrorism” is built on a national security memo without congressional approval

A national security memo issued by President Trump in September twenty twenty-five is now the legal foundation for a wave of terrorism prosecutions against left-wing activists—without ever passing through Congress. Per The Conversation, the presidential memorandum, known as NSPM-7, authorizes preemptive law enforcement measures based not on evidence of planned violence, but on political beliefs. The memo identifies views like "anti-capitalism" or "anti-Christian" ideology as potential indicators of domestic terrorism. The Justice Department has built task forces of counterterrorism prosecutors to pursue these cases. One Texas defendant received a hundred-year sentence for his role in an armed confrontation; others drew decades in prison without ever firing a weapon. The administration added an international dimension when Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted representatives from more than sixty-five countries for what was informally called the "Antifa summit," with the White House calling it an unprecedented global offensive against what it labels "radical left terrorism." But as an international relations scholar writing in The Conversation points out, this marks a major shift in U.S. counterterrorism strategy—one that raises serious First Amendment questions about policing ideology rather than violent acts.

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