On September 25, President Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, or NSPM-7. The sweeping directive lays out a “whole-of-government strategy” for combating domestic terrorism.
Most headlines focused on Antifa’s new designation. But NSPM-7 is the real story. It’s the game changer, and the left is only beginning to grasp its scope. Expect it to define political battles for years to come.
Naming the enemy
For the first time in years, a presidential directive names threats with specificity instead of hiding behind euphemisms. NSPM-7 defines what it calls “the anti-fascist lie” — the framing of foundational American principles like border security and support for law enforcement as “fascist” to justify violent revolution.
NSPM-7 marks a historic break with the old rules. It calls the threats by name, orders the government to follow the money, and strips the Justice Department of its wiggle room.
That lie, the document states, has become the “organizing rallying cry” for domestic terrorists. And it spells out the ideological fuel behind the violence: anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity, extremism on migration, race, and gender, and open hostility toward traditional American views on family and morality.
Political correctness has long forbidden that kind of bluntness. NSPM-7 throws it out.
In doing so, Trump’s memorandum recalls his 2016 insistence on naming “radical Islamic terror” despite Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s refusal to do so. As Trump said during his second debate with Clinton: “To solve a problem, you have to be able to state what the problem is or at least say the name.”
NSPM-7 says the names.
Following the money
The directive goes further than definitions. It instructs agencies to act.
Perhaps most striking: The Treasury Department is ordered to identify and disrupt the financial networks that fund domestic terrorism and political violence. That includes tracing illicit funding streams and coordinating with other agencies to choke them off.
The IRS is directed to ensure no tax-exempt entities are financing political violence — directly or indirectly. And when they are, the IRS must refer those organizations, their leaders, and their employees to the Justice Department for prosecution.
For years, Americans suspected billion-dollar left-wing institutions were underwriting street violence while hiding behind plausible deniability. NSPM-7 sets the stage to prove it. It establishes the long-demanded “follow the money” strategy — something only government agencies can do. Had it been in place before the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020, the “Summer of Love” might have cost millions in damages, not billions, as resources dried up.
Zero tolerance
The president’s directive also mobilizes Joint Terrorism Task Forces and makes domestic terrorism a national priority area. But its most consequential piece comes at the Justice Department’s expense.
The attorney general is instructed to prosecute all federal crimes tied to domestic terrorism “to the maximum extent permissible by law.” Every word matters. “All” means no discretion. If it can be charged, it must be charged. “Maximum extent” means no plea deals designed to make cases go away.
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Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
That language is a direct rebuke to the Justice Department’s pattern of selective prosecution. Think back to the Eastern District of Virginia’s refusal to pursue James Comey until a new U.S. attorney had to take it on. Trump’s team drafted NSPM-7 to make sure that kind of deep state resistance doesn’t happen again.
The test ahead
The proof will come quickly. Attorney General Pam Bondi now must prosecute at scale. No more leniency for “unpermitted protests” that turn into riots or for assaults on ICE officers. The Justice Department’s past record has been sparse, at best. NSPM-7 removes its excuses.
NSPM-7 marks a historic break with the old rules, and I’m here for it. It calls the threats by name. It orders the government to follow the money. It strips the Justice Department of its wiggle room.
The left sees the danger in this because it exposes its networks of funding and protection. Conservatives should see the opportunity.
Trump has delivered a strategy that treats domestic terrorism not as a nuisance, but as a war to be fought and won. Now, it must be enforced.
Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Antifa, Antifa terrorist group, Anti-trump, Fascism, Trump, Democratic establishment, Leftists, Leftism, Domestic terrorism, Law and order, Portland, Donald trump, Law enforcement