The Trump administration has vowed to use every federal resource to target left-wing organizations it claims are funding and promoting violence.
The announcement comes after prominent conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at a university event in Utah last week.
Investigators have identified Tyler Robinson as the suspect and say he had a left-wing ideology, but added that he is alleged to have committed the crime alone.
Highlights
- The Trump administration vows to use all federal resources to target liberal groups allegedly funding and promoting violence.
- Stephen Miller appears to claim Charlie Kirk's assassination was part of an organized left-wing domestic terror campaign.
- White House officials plan to label certain left-wing actions as domestic terrorism and scrutinize nonprofit tax statuses, according to sources.
The Trump administration will target liberal groups it accuses of promoting violence
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Authorities have not released a motive for Kirk’s murder.
Speaking on “The Charlie Kirk Show,” hosted by Vice President JD Vance to pay tribute to Kirk, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller announced plans to go after non-governmental liberal organizations.
“Crazies on the far left are saying, ‘Oh, Stephen Miller and JD Vance, they’re going to go after constitutionally protected free speech,’” Vance said.
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“No, no, no. We’re going to go after the NGO network that foments, facilitates and engages in violence,” he added.
“Violence is not okay in our system, and we want to make it less likely that it happens.”
Miller, in response, said that Kirk sent him a message one day before his death, urging him to come up with a strategy “to go after the left-wing organizations that are promoting violence.”
Miller told Vance he would “write those words onto [his] heart” and carry them out.
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He claimed there was an “organized campaign” that led to Kirk’s assassination, and said he would use anger at that to “uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks.”
Miller characterized the combination of online doxxing, incitement, harassment, riots, and organized street violence as elements of 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,” Miller said. “It will happen, and we will do it in Charlie's name.”
Miller claimed there is a liberal domestic terror movement
Vance and Miller did not name any of the organizations they were referring to, and did not provide evidence to back up claims of a domestic terror network.
After Kirk’s death, Trump and several Republicans quickly blamed the attack on the “radical left” and suggested violence against conservatives was coordinated.
Allies of the president, and the president himself, cited the assassination attempt against Trump, the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in 2024 and the shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise in 2017 as examples of violence against the right.
There was little mention of attacks on Democrats, such as the murder of Speaker Emerita and Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, who were shot and killed in a “politically motivated assassination” at their home on June 14.
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State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette Hoffman were attacked by the same suspect on the same night.
Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul Pelosi was also attacked in 2022, and in April, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s home was set on fire.
Two senior White House officials told The New York Times that cabinet members and federal agency leaders were being directed to identify groups accused of backing or financing violence against conservatives.
According to the officials, the intent was to classify certain left-wing actions as domestic terrorism — an extension of prior efforts to penalize liberal organizations seen as supporting disruptive protests.
One approach has involved scrutinizing the tax-exempt status of nonprofits critical of Trump or conservative causes.
Another official added that investigators planned to examine incidents such as the torching of Teslas, reportedly in protest of Elon Musk, and attacks on immigration officers, with the aim of linking those acts to broader networks of liberal activists.
Democrats have criticized the new plans and say Trump is using Kirk’s murder to destroy political dissent.
“Pay attention. Something dark might be coming,” Senator Chris Murphy said on X.
“The murder of Charlie Kirk could have united Americans to confront political violence. Instead, Trump and his anti-democratic radicals look to be readying a campaign to destroy dissent.”
The Huffington Post reported that a National Institute of Justice Journal study found that in recent years, the majority of threats and political violence has come from the right.