Trump Administration Uses Executive Powers to Target Protesters, NGOs as Terr...

Based on reporting from The Verge, the Trump administration on Thursday, October 2, 2025, initiated a sweeping crackdown on domestic political opposition, leveraging a new executive order and a national security memorandum to target protesters, activists, and non-governmental organizations. The White House announced that these measures are a direct response to what it calls a wave of left-wing political violence, citing the recent death of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk as a key justification. The executive order formally designates "antifa" as a "domestic terrorist organization," while a related national security memo directs a broad, "all-of-government effort" to investigate and dismantle the financial networks that support groups deemed to be part of this movement. According to The Verge's analysis, these actions represent a significant escalation in the administration's use of executive power against political adversaries, creating a framework to criminalize dissent.

The directives specifically empower federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, the Treasury, and the IRS, to pursue individuals and organizations associated with the anti-fascist movement. In a press conference, President Trump explicitly named billionaire philanthropist George Soros and Democratic donor Reid Hoffman as potential funders who would face scrutiny. Following the announcement, reports confirmed that the Department of Justice had ordered several U.S. attorneys' offices to open investigations into the Open Society Foundations, the philanthropic network founded by Soros. Civil liberties advocates and targeted organizations immediately condemned the move, with the Open Society Foundations releasing a statement that described the accusations as "politically motivated attacks on civil society, meant to silence speech the administration disagrees with and undermine the First Amendment right to free speech." The Verge's report frames these developments as the culmination of long-standing rhetoric and the implementation of policy blueprints designed to consolidate executive power and marginalize political opponents.

• Pretext and Justification: The administration has built its public case for the new measures around the September 10, 2025, killing of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. President Trump has repeatedly blamed "radical leftists" for the death, using it as a catalyst to call for a crackdown, despite a lack of public evidence connecting the perpetrator to any specific left-wing organizations. Critics cited by The Verge argue this narrative is being used as a pretext to justify pre-planned actions against a wide range of administration critics, from Black Lives Matter to immigrant rights groups.
• The 'Antifa' Designation Explained: A central component of the new policy is an executive order that officially designates "antifa" as a domestic terrorist organization. However, legal experts and historians note that antifa is not a structured, centralized organization but rather a decentralized political ideology and movement of anti-fascist activists. The United States currently lacks a formal legal mechanism for designating domestic groups as terrorist organizations in the way it does for foreign entities, making the executive order's authority legally questionable and likely to face significant court challenges.
• Targeting Financial Backers: A National Security Presidential Memorandum issued on September 25, 2025, outlines the strategy for dismantling financial support networks. It directs the Treasury Department to use "all available resources" to trace and disrupt funding streams and instructs the IRS to review the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit organizations suspected of "directly or indirectly" financing political violence. This provides a powerful tool for the administration to exert pressure on NGOs and philanthropic foundations.
• Connection to Project 2025: The Verge's reporting connects these executive actions to the policy proposals laid out in Project 2025, a comprehensive blueprint for a second Trump term assembled by the Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups. This agenda explicitly calls for politicizing the Department of Justice, using federal law enforcement against political rivals, and consolidating power within the executive branch under an expansive interpretation of the unitary executive theory. The current crackdown is seen by analysts as a direct implementation of this strategy.
• Legal and Constitutional Concerns: Civil liberties organizations, including the ACLU, have warned that these actions pose a grave threat to the First Amendment rights of speech and assembly. By broadly labeling a decentralized movement as a terrorist group, the government can investigate and prosecute individuals for activities related to protest and activism. The Open Society Foundations stated, "When power is abused to take away the rights of some people, it puts the rights of all people at risk." Legal challenges are expected to argue the orders are unconstitutionally vague and designed to chill protected speech.
• An 'All-of-Government' Effort: The national security memo establishes a National Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) to coordinate the "investigate, prosecute, and disrupt" campaign. This body will centralize efforts across the DOJ, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security. White House Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller stated, "This is the first time in American history that there is an all-of-government effort to dismantle left-wing terrorism," explicitly linking the new policy to past events like the Black Lives Matter protests.
• Implications for Nonprofits and Activists: The immediate effect of the orders is a climate of intense scrutiny and legal risk for a wide array of progressive and left-leaning organizations. The threat of IRS audits, federal investigation, and the loss of tax-exempt status could severely hamper their operations. Furthermore, individuals associated with or receiving grants from targeted organizations may face investigation, creating a chilling effect on both activism and philanthropy in sectors the administration opposes.
• Historical Rhetoric: The targeting of George Soros is the culmination of years of baseless claims from the political right that he funds and orchestrates civil unrest. This narrative, which has antisemitic overtones of a shadowy Jewish financier manipulating political events, is now being operationalized as official government policy. President Trump has previously called for Soros to be jailed and investigated under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, a law created to prosecute organized crime.