{"id":45678,"date":"2025-12-18T14:26:55","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T22:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=45678"},"modified":"2025-12-18T14:26:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T22:26:56","slug":"throwback-to-mccarthyism-trump-doj-moves-to-treat-leftist-dissent-as-criminal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/12\/18\/throwback-to-mccarthyism-trump-doj-moves-to-treat-leftist-dissent-as-criminal\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Throwback to McCarthyism\u2019: Trump DOJ Moves to Treat Leftist Dissent as Criminal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"AG<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel arrive for a news conference at the Department of Justice on December 4, 2025, in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A former official from Trump\u2019s first term said the FBI will be able to throw the full might of the surveillance state at \u201cAmericans whose primary \u2018offense\u2019 may be ideological dissent.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Prager<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dec 18, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trump administration<\/a> is about to embark on a massive crackdown on what it describes as a scourge of rampant left-wing \u201cterrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the US Department of Justice<\/a> (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<\/a> and his agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dem<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dem Senator Raises Alarm About Trump Bringing \u2018Illegal and Dangerous Misuse of Lethal Force\u2019 to Domestic Foes<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"President<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Report Tracks Trump \u2018War on Free Speech\u2019 and Urges Systemic Resistance<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this month, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein reported<\/a> that Attorney General Pam Bondi<\/a> had sent out a memo<\/a> ordering the FBI<\/a> to \u201ccompile a list of groups or entities engaging in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of this effort, Bondi set Thursday as a deadline for all law enforcement agencies to \u201ccoordinate delivery\u201d of intelligence files related to \u201cantifa\u201d or \u201cantifa-related activities\u201d to the FBI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The memo identifies<\/a> those who express \u201copposition to law and immigration<\/a> enforcement; extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders; adherence to radical gender ideology,\u201d as well as \u201canti-Americanism,\u201d \u201canti-capitalism,\u201d and \u201canti-Christianity,\u201d as potential targets for investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This language references National Security Presidential Memorandum-7, or NSPM-7, a memo issued<\/a> by Trump in September, which identified this slate of left-wing beliefs as potential \u201cindicators\u201d of terrorism following the assassination of right-wing<\/a> activist Charlie Kirk<\/a> in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In comments made before the alleged shooter\u2019s identity was revealed, Trump attributed<\/a> the murder to \u201cthose on the radical left [who] have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis,\u201d adding that \u201cthis kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we\u2019re seeing in our country and must stop right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weeks after Kirk\u2019s shooting, Trump designated<\/a> \u201cantifa\u201d as a \u201cdomestic terrorism organization,\u201d a move that alarmed critics because \u201cantifa,\u201d short for \u201canti-fascist,\u201d is a loosely defined ideology rather than an organized political group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller<\/a>, meanwhile, promised<\/a> that the Trump administration would use law enforcement to \u201cdismantle\u201d left-wing groups he said were \u201cfomenting violence.\u201d He suggested<\/a> that merely using heated rhetoric\u2014including calling Trump and his supporters \u201cfascist\u201d or \u201cauthoritarian\u201d\u2014\u201cincites violence and terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klippenstein said that \u201cwhere NSPM-7 was a declaration of war on just about anyone who isn\u2019t MAGA,\u201d the memo that went into effect Thursday \u201cis the war plan for how the government will wage it on a tactical level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In comments<\/a> to the Washington Post<\/a><\/em>, former FBI agent Michael Feinberg, who is now a senior editor at Lawfare<\/em>, said it was \u201ca pretty damn dangerous document,\u201d in part because \u201cit is directed at a specific ideology, namely the left, without offering much evidence as to why that is necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studies have repeatedly shown<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

He said it \u201cincludes the FBI\u2019s ability to marshal facial recognition<\/a>, phone-tracking databases, license-plate readers, financial records review, undercover operations, and intelligence-sharing tools against Americans whose primary \u2018offense\u2019 may be ideological dissent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnfortunately, once you are fed into that system, there is no real \u2018due process\u2019 until charges are brought,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like you get a text-message notification when the FBI begins investigating you for terrorism offenses, and there\u2019s certainly no \u2018opt-out\u2019 feature. For this to happen, you don\u2019t need to commit violence. You don\u2019t even need to plan it. Under the administration\u2019s new guidelines, you merely need to be flagged for association with the anti-fascist movement to become a potential target.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Ron Wyden<\/a> (D-Wash.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the Post, <\/em>\u201cIt is a throwback to McCarthyism and the worst abuses of [Former FBI Director J. Edgar] Hoover\u2019s FBI to use federal law enforcement against Americans purely because of their political beliefs or because they disagree with the current president\u2019s politics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor argued: \u201cHe\u2019s right, but it\u2019s actually more dangerous than that. Joseph McCarthy had subpoenas and hearings and created his blacklists of \u2018communist\u2019 Americans from Capitol Hill. And while controversial FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover may have had old-school wiretaps and informants, Donald Trump\u2019s team has algorithmic surveillance, bulk data collection, and a post-9\/11 security state designed for permanent emergency. It\u2019s like comparing a snowflake with a refrigerator.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Prager<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Prager is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel arrive for a news conference at the Department of Justice on December 4, 2025, in Washington, DC. \u00a0(Photo by Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images) A former official from Trump\u2019s first term said the FBI will be able to throw the full might of… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45678"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45679,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45678\/revisions\/45679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}