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‘THROWBACK TO MCCARTHYISM’: TRUMP DOJ MOVES TO TREAT LEFTIST
DISSENT AS CRIMINAL  
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Stephen Prager
December 18, 2025
Common Dreams
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_ A former official from Trump’s first term said the FBI will be
able to throw the full might of the surveillance state at “Americans
whose primary ‘offense’ may be ideological dissent.” _

Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel appear at a news
conference at the Justice Department on Dec. 4 in Washington, DC ,
Photo: Alex Brandon / Associated Press // Los Angeles Times

 

The Trump administration
[[link removed]] is about to
embark on a massive crackdown on what it describes as a scourge of
rampant left-wing “terrorism.”

But the US Department of Justice
[[link removed]] (DOJ) memo
ordering the crackdown has critics fearing it will go far beyond
punishing those who plan criminal acts and will instead be used to
criminalize anyone who expresses opposition to President Donald Trump
[[link removed]] and his agenda.

Earlier this month, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein reported
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that Attorney General Pam Bondi
[[link removed]] had sent out a memo
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ordering the FBI [[link removed]] to “compile
a list of groups or entities engaging in acts that may constitute
domestic terrorism.”

As part of this effort, Bondi set Thursday as a deadline for all law
enforcement agencies to “coordinate delivery” of intelligence
files related to “antifa” or “antifa-related activities” to
the FBI.

The memo identifies
[[link removed]] those who
express “opposition to law and immigration
[[link removed]] enforcement; extreme
views in favor of mass migration and open borders; adherence to
radical gender ideology,” as well as “anti-Americanism,”
“anti-capitalism,” and “anti-Christianity,” as potential
targets for investigation.

This language references National Security Presidential Memorandum-7,
or NSPM-7, a memo issued
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Trump in September, which identified this slate of left-wing beliefs
as potential “indicators” of terrorism following the assassination
of right-wing [[link removed]] activist
Charlie Kirk [[link removed]] in
September.

In comments made before the alleged shooter’s identity was revealed,
Trump attributed
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the murder to “those on the radical left [who] have compared
wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis,” adding that “this kind
of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re
seeing in our country and must stop right now.”

Weeks after Kirk’s shooting, Trump designated
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“antifa” as a “domestic terrorism organization,” a move that
alarmed critics because “antifa,” short for “anti-fascist,” is
a loosely defined ideology rather than an organized political group.

Senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller
[[link removed]], meanwhile, promised
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that the Trump administration would use law enforcement to
“dismantle” left-wing groups he said were “fomenting
violence.” He suggested
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that merely using heated rhetoric—including calling Trump and his
supporters “fascist” or “authoritarian”—“incites violence
and terrorism.”

Klippenstein said that “where NSPM-7 was a declaration of war on
just about anyone who isn’t MAGA,” the memo that went into effect
Thursday “is the war plan for how the government will wage it on a
tactical level.” 

In comments
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to the _Washington Post_
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Michael Feinberg, who is now a senior editor at _Lawfare_, said it was
“a pretty damn dangerous document,” in part because “it is
directed at a specific ideology, namely the left, without offering
much evidence as to why that is necessary.”

Studies have repeatedly shown
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that while all political factions contain violent actors, those who
commit acts of political violence are vastly more likely to identify
with right-wing causes.

Miles Taylor, who served as chief of staff for the Department of
Homeland Security under the first Trump administration, pointed out
[[link removed]] in a
blog post the extraordinary surveillance capability that the FBI will
have at its disposal to use against those it targets.

He said it “includes the FBI’s ability to marshal facial
recognition [[link removed]],
phone-tracking databases, license-plate readers, financial records
review, undercover operations, and intelligence-sharing tools against
Americans whose primary ‘offense’ may be ideological dissent.”

“Unfortunately, once you are fed into that system, there is no real
‘due process’ until charges are brought,” Taylor said. “It’s
not like you get a text-message notification when the FBI begins
investigating you for terrorism offenses, and there’s certainly no
‘opt-out’ feature. For this to happen, you don’t need to commit
violence. You don’t even need to plan it. Under the
administration’s new guidelines, you merely need to be flagged for
association with the anti-fascist movement to become a potential
target.”

Sen. Ron Wyden [[link removed]] (D-Wash.),
a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the _Post, _“It
is a throwback to McCarthyism and the worst abuses of [Former FBI
Director J. Edgar] Hoover’s FBI to use federal law enforcement
against Americans purely because of their political beliefs or because
they disagree with the current president’s politics.”

Taylor argued: “He’s right, but it’s actually more dangerous
than that. Joseph McCarthy had subpoenas and hearings and created his
blacklists of ‘communist’ Americans from Capitol Hill. And while
controversial FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover may have had old-school
wiretaps and informants, Donald Trump’s team has algorithmic
surveillance, bulk data collection, and a post-9/11 security state
designed for permanent emergency. It’s like comparing a snowflake
with a refrigerator.”

_[STEPHEN PRAGER is a staff writer for Common Dreams.]_

_Licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to
republish and share widely._

* dissent
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* Donald Trump
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* Justice Dept.
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* DOJ
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* FBI
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* FBI spying
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* surveillance
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* surveillance state
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* McCarthyism
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* Immigration
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* immigrant defense
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* anti-Americanism
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* anti-capitalism
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* anti-Christianity
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* National Security Presidential Memorandum-7
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* NSPM-7
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* Pam Bondi
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* Kash Patel
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