Trump Administration Unveils Counterterrorism Strategy Targeting Left-Wing and Transgender Groups

On 8 May 2026 the White House issued a 16-page “United States Counterterrorism Strategy,” the first since a 2021 Biden memo. The document, authored by White House counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka, lists “violent left-wing extremists, including anarchists and anti-fascists” alongside “legacy Islamist terrorists” and “narcoterrorists and transnational gangs” as primary threats. It calls for rapid identification and neutralization of groups described as “anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist.” The strategy omits any reference to far-right or white-supremacist violence.

Mother JonesThe Guardian

The 2021 memo emphasized white-supremacist violence; the new plan shifts focus to left-wing activism and transgender advocacy.

Mother Jones

Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump adviser, authored the memo. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described Charlie Kirk’s killing as a domestic 9/11. Critics include Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, Nadia Ben-Youssef (Center for Constitutional Rights), Colin Clarke (Soufan Center) and Chip Gibbons (Defending Rights & Dissent). The Heritage Foundation urges the FBI to label trans-advocacy as violent extremism.

The Guardian

The strategy says the United States will “use all the tools constitutionally available…to map membership, ties to Antifa, and cripple groups operationally before they can maim or kill the innocent.” It claims equal application to cartels, jihadists, left-wing extremists, state actors and future threats.

The Guardian

Critics say the plan weaponizes terrorism law to curb dissent, expand surveillance and legitimize illegal strikes. Ben-Youssef warned the plan embraces state violence and political repression; Clarke called it “utterly unhinged.”

The Guardian

The memo omits white-supremacist threats despite law-enforcement data showing far-right extremism as the leading domestic terror source. Its claim that immigration makes Europe an “incubator of terror threats” lacks evidence, and no implementation timeline is provided.

The Guardian

• “We will use all the tools constitutionally available to us to map them at home, identify their membership, map their ties to international organizations like Antifa, and use law enforcement tools to cripple them operationally before they can maim or kill the innocent.” — United States Counterterrorism Strategy

The Guardian

• “It’s the opposite of ‘speak softly and carry a big stick’. It’s more like ‘yell loudly to conceal your small stick’,” — Colin Clarke, Soufan Center

The Guardian

• “It overtly dehumanizes communities, and lauds executive action that has violated the constitution and international law.” — Nadia Ben-Youssef, Center for Constitutional Rights

The Guardian

• “domestic 9/11.” — Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary

Mother Jones

Congressional panels plan hearings on the strategy’s legality and its exclusion of far-right threats; civil-rights groups are preparing lawsuits over the trans-extremism label.

The Guardian