Top Trump administration officials are hinting that they could soon ramp up investigations into left-wing groups that they accuse of spreading extremism.
President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that his administration was “already” subjecting a number of left-wing groups to a “major investigation.” One of his top aides and Vice President JD Vance suggested on Monday that they are focusing their investigative efforts on what they see as domestic terrorism.
“The organized doxing campaigns, the organized riots, the organized street violence, the organized campaigns of dehumanization, vilification, posting people’s addresses, combining that with messaging that’s designed to trigger, incite violence, and the actual organized cells that carry out and facilitate the violence, it is a vast domestic terror movement,” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said on a memorial episode of the Charlie Kirk Show hosted by Vance on Monday. “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.”
Many observers have assumed that the president’s current desire to crack down on such groups was spurred by the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on September 10; statements from top officials in his administration indicate that such an operation was in the works even earlier.
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, for instance, stated on commentator Scott Jennings’ radio program that the administration was “already working” on a plan to address violent groups before Tyler Robison allegedly shot and killed Kirk.
“We are working, we were actually already working, spurred as much by the Ukrainian woman as by Charlie’s tragic passing, [on] a more comprehensive plan on violence in America, the importance of free speech and civil speech, the ways that you can address these, they can only be called hate groups, that may breed this kind of behavior,” Wiles told Jennings.
Wiles noted that “the president will be telling the American people about what we plan to do” in the coming days.
Experts who previously spoke with the Washington Examiner generally agreed that the administration would need to link whatever entities they are investigating to some kind of criminal wrongdoing in order to take action against them.
“The law provides many, many justifications for the Department of Justice, the FBI to investigate radical groups,” Manhattan Institute legal policy fellow Tal Fortgang said. “It could be for connections to terror organizations. It could be for organized crime domestically. Any of these are plausible justifications. Unless you can tie whoever is responsible for this to a criminal enterprise, it’s going to be hard to just bring charges against radical groups or start filing lawsuits against radical groups.”
The scope and targets of this investigation appear to have changed following Kirk’s assassination.
Law enforcement sources, for instance, told the New York Post that they are investigating leftist groups in Utah to probe for possible connections to Kirk’s shooter. That probe includes groups communicating via Steam, a popular online video game marketplace and community platform, and a pro-trans organization called Armed Queers SLC.
In a similar vein, the Washington Free Beacon reported that the FBI is investigating a network of social media accounts that seemingly posted about Kirk’s killing before it happened.
Whitehouse spokeswoman Abigail Jackson also commented, “President Trump was clear on this: the perpetrator of this horrific act will pay for what they did. They will face the full wrath of the American justice system. And any other left-wing whack jobs who engage in targeted political violence like the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
Liberal groups have already been a target of the second Trump administration. Much of the rhetoric from the president and his allies surrounding the Department of Government Efficiency was focused on how DOGE’s actions deprived left-wing groups of federal funds they received through USAID and other federal agencies. Additionally, Trump suggested in August that his administration may pursue a racketeering investigation against George Soros and his son, Alexander, who recently took over his father’s philanthropic empire.
Trump reaffirmed this intention on September 12.
“We’re going to look into Soros, because I think it’s a RICO case against him and other people,” the president said on Fox and Friends. “Because this is more than like protests, this is real agitation. This is riots on the street. And we’re going to look into it.”
Some on the Left have expressed criticism, and even fear, over the Trump administration’s desire to probe left-wing groups.
“The murder of Charlie Kirk could have united Americans to confront political violence,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) wrote of the plan on Sunday. “Instead, Trump and his anti-democratic radicals look to be readying a campaign to destroy dissent … That’s why it was so important for Trump sycophants to take over the DOJ and FBI, so that if a pretext arose, Trump could orchestrate a dizzying campaign to shut down political opposition groups and lock up or harass its leaders. This is what could be coming — now.”
The president’s allies, of course, see things differently. Conservatives charge that left-wing groups have been key players in sometimes violent riots over immigration enforcement, the war in Gaza, and racial justice, thus making them fair targets for federal action. The Washington Examiner has compiled a running list of individuals linked to Antifa cells who have allegedly committed crimes in recent months.
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Alongside its push against left-wing groups, the Department of Defense is also seeking to root out individuals in the armed forces who celebrated Kirk’s murder, and the State Department is working to revoke visas from foreigners who have made similar comments. Republicans in Congress have asked House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to form a committee to investigate left-wing groups as well.