The origin and content of NSPM-7
On Sept. 25, 2025 Trump signed NSPM-7, National Security Presidential Memorandum 7. NSPM-7's subject was countering domestic terrorism and organized political violence. The memo's language is broad enough to encompass legal, peaceful political opposition such as Dissident Politics as a source of domestic terrorism that can be targeted by federal law enforcement. Some of the relevant language from NSPM-7 is this:
Heinous assassinations and other acts of political violence in the United States have dramatically increased in recent years. Even in the aftermath of the horrifying assassination of Charlie Kirk, some individuals who adhered to the alleged shooter’s ideology embraced and cheered this evil murder while actively encouraging more political violence.
There are common recurrent motivations and indicia uniting this pattern of violent and terroristic activities under the umbrella of self-described “anti-fascism.” These movements portray foundational American principles (e.g., support for law enforcement and border control) as “fascist” to justify and encourage acts of violent revolution. This “anti-fascist” lie has become the organizing rallying cry used by domestic terrorists to wage a violent assault against democratic institutions, constitutional rights, and fundamental American liberties. Common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.
This political violence is not a series of isolated incidents and does not emerge organically. Instead, it is a culmination of sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation, radicalization, threats, and violence designed to silence opposing speech, limit political activity, change or direct policy outcomes, and prevent the functioning of a democratic society.
These campaigns often begin by isolating and dehumanizing specific targets to justify murder or other violent action against them. They do so through a variety of fora, including anonymous chat forums, in-person meetings, social media, and even educational institutions**.** These campaigns then escalate to organized doxing, where the private or identifying information of their targets (such as home addresses, phone numbers, or other personal information) is exposed to the public with the explicit intent of encouraging others to harass, intimidate, or violently assault them. (emphases added)
Criticisms of Trump and MAGA elites often made here are that they are authoritarian and kleptocratic. There is plenty of evidence to rationally support those criticisms. Despite that fact- and reason-based truth, NSPM-7 legally reframes such criticism as the "radicalization" phase of a violence campaign. Here Trump has directly converted good faith, fact-based criticism from constitutionally protected free speech to an actionable source of domestic terrorism. Thus, people merely criticizing Trump and MAGA authoritarianism and corruption don't have to be violent to be targeted. Instead, they just have to share an "ideology" that a violent actor might also held.
Catch-alls: There is a catch all in NSPM-7 to sweep in criticism of MAGA under the "anti-fascism" label. Trump's memo states that the label "anti-fascism" is a "lie" used to "justify and encourage acts of violent revolution." It then lists "common threads" ..... [including] extremism on migration, race, and gender." Thus even if there are significant parallels between (a) Trump, his MAGA elites and their authoritarian tactics, and (b) old-fashioned fascists or Nazis, simply making the comparison can put someone on Trump's domestic terrorist list, so they can be surveilled, financially harassed, subjected to federal conspiracy charges, and maybe some even put in jail.
NSPM-7 explicitly lists anti-capitalism as a common thread of domestic terrorism. This sweeps in criticism of "oligarchs," "kleptocrats," and "corporate corruption", all of which can easily be framed as anti-capitalist and thus domestic terrorist rhetoric.
The vaguest and most dangerous catch-all is NSPM-7's assertion that anti-Americanism, which is not defined, is also linked to domestic terrorism. The scope of NSPM-7 includes any sharp criticism of the US government's legitimacy that can be framed as "anti-American." Thus calling the President a "dictator," "tyrant," or "illegitimate" attacks the core functioning of the state. According to MAGA dogma, that is now domestic terrorism. Terms that delegitimize the state, e.g., junta or police state, can be easily categorized as anti-American sentiment because they imply the government is an enemy to be resisted rather than a democratic administration to be debated.
Federal implementation of NSPM-7
The Bondi memo: According to the Ken Klippenstein substack, and other sources such as Reuters, Trump's weaponized DOJ has produced its own internal (not public) memo that makes clear MAGA's authoritarian intent to squelch legitimate, legal criticism. The memo leaked to the public. Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered the FBI to compile a "list of groups or entities engaging in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism." The Bondi memo is a masterpiece of how to weaponize law enforcement language to criminalize legitimate political opposition.
The Bondi memo explicitly states that domestic terrorists are "united by an anti-fascist platform", which the memo links to "an elevation of violence to achieve policy outcomes." The logical chain is simple: if you hold anti-fascist beliefs, you are part of the "common characteristic" network of domestic terrorists. This imposes guilt by ideological association, not guilt by conduct.
Thus, if a person or group has ever written that Trump is authoritarian, an autocrat, or a fascist, Bondi's DOJ memo provides the fig leaf to investigate them as part of the ideological network behind the "Charlie Kirk assassination". Thus a person or group is not charged with the assassination. Instead they are investigated simply for holding the shared ideology that supposedly motivated it.
The memo is designed to treat criticism that attacks the moral legitimacy of the ruling order (capitalist, traditional, nationalist) as the precursor to terrorism. No one needs to call Trump or MAGA elites Nazis or fascists to be on the domestic terrorism list. Calling them corrupt oligarchs destroying America or the like is enough.
Points to consider
This sounds like the creation of a federal speech and thought police force that has been licensed to police speech and thought that the police and dictator Trump want to see policed and suppressed. Is that a reasonable, rational, evidence-based assessment of NSPM-7 and Bondi's no-longer secret memo? Or is it crackpot conspiracy theory or blind partisan opposition to a molehill concern?
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