Trump orders crackdown on 'domestic terrorists' in escalation of a
campaign against political rivals
[September 26, 2025]
By NICHOLAS RICCARDI
President Donald Trump on Thursday directed his administration to crack
down on backers of what it described as “left-wing terrorism,” naming
two top Democratic donors as he alleged without evidence a vast
conspiracy to finance violent protests against the government.
Trump’s executive order put the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Taskforce in the
lead and said the effort would span agencies across the administration,
including the Treasury Department, “to identify and disrupt financial
networks that fund domestic terrorism and political violence.”
The pursuit of what the president said were the funders of "agitators
and anarchists” is the latest instance of Trump using the power of his
office to persecute his political rivals. When pressed by a reporter to
name any possible targets, he suggested two of the Democratic Party’s
top donors — billionaires George Soros and Reid Hoffman.
“If they are funding these things, they're going to have some problems,”
Trump said.
Trump had threatened such an order after the assassination earlier this
month of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and a shooting outside an
Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Dallas, which killed one
detainee and wounded two others. Authorities have identified the
suspected gunmen in each case, but no information has been made public
so far to suggest either was backed by a wider network. Authorities said
a note found at the home of the gunman in the ICE shooting read, “Yes,
it was just me.”
In a statement Thursday, before Trump's announcement, Soros' Open
Society Foundation referred to previous accusations made by the
Republican president, saying its activities are peaceful and lawful.
“These accusations are politically motivated attacks on civil society,
meant to silence speech the administration disagrees with and undermine
the First Amendment right to free speech,” the organizations said.
Hoffman, who helped start PayPal and the networking site LinkedIn, could
not immediately be reached for comment.
The executive order is the latest startling action from Trump as he
seeks to wield the Justice Department as a tool of retribution in a
campaign to punish his perceived enemies and undercut the ability of
Democrats to organize and raise money. Last spring, he ordered his
attorney general to investigate ActBlue, the Democrats’ main fundraising
platform, while allowing its conservative counterpart to escape
scrutiny.
It also marks the second time this week Trump officially invoked the
terrorism label. On Monday, he signed an order designating the
decentralized movement known as antifa — short for “anti-fascists” — as
a domestic terrorist organization, even though a former FBI official has
said it was more an ideology than a cohesive group.
Trump has blamed the nation's recent surge of political violence solely
on the left, even though Democrats as well as conservatives have been
victims of attacks. A Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker and her
husband were killed in their home in June, the official residence of
Pennsylvania's Democratic governor was firebombed earlier this year, and
in 2022 the 82-year-old husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was
assaulted by a hammer-wielding man who broke into their San Francisco
home.
The order, however, cites only instances of violence targeting
conservatives, including last year's assassination attempt against Trump
in Butler, Pennsylvania. The shooter had few visible political opinions
and had also scouted President Joe Biden as a possible target.
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President Donald Trump signs a presidential memorandum on the death
penalty in the District of Columbia in the Oval Office at the White
House, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex
Brandon)
Trump contended during Thursday's Oval Office signing that a shadowy
conspiracy was behind some of the rowdier instances of civil
disobedience directed at his administration, including the
occupation of a Portland federal building during his first term and
assaults by a group of black-masked antifa activists.
“These are professional agitators and anarchists, and they get hired
by wealthy people, some of whom I know,” Trump said.
It was an allegation echoed by Vice President JD Vance and other top
administration officials, although none provided any evidence of
such a network. The order directs the Internal Revenue Service to
withdraw tax-exempt status from any organization it identifies as
funding political violence.
Trump named one of the most prolific funders of nonprofit
organizations in the world as one of the possible suspect donors.
“Soros is a name certainly that I keep hearing. I don't know,” Trump
said when asked for examples of possible funders. “I hear names of
some pretty rich people that are radical left people. ... Maybe I
hear about a guy named Reid Hoffman, pretty rich guy I guess."
Hoffman is a regular funder of progressive and mainstream Democratic
causes, including writer E. Jean Carroll's lawsuits against Trump
that alleged he sexually assaulted and then defamed her.
Soros has long been a target of conservatives because of his
progressive advocacy and spending on liberal causes.
A Hungarian Jew who survived the Nazi occupation, he made his
billions as an investor. He donated to anti-communist causes in the
1980s that helped liberate eastern Europe and even funded a major
university in his Hungarian hometown. But as his Open Society
Foundation moved increasingly into areas of social justice, ranging
from anti-poverty initiatives to LGBTQ and immigrants’ rights, Soros
drew the ire of the right in the U.S. and globally.
In 2004, he jumped into partisan politics for the first time,
donating to groups campaigning against Republican President George
W. Bush’s reelection campaign. Soros has continued to give to
Democrats, becoming the top donor nationwide in some recent election
cycles.
It was not immediately clear what authority the administration would
use to make the terrorism designation. While the State Department
keeps a list of foreign terror organizations, there is no domestic
equivalent, in part because of the First Amendment protections in
the U.S.
Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff, called the Democratic
Party a “domestic extremist organization” last month on Fox News. In
the Oval Office on Thursday, he noted the historic nature of Trump's
action.
“This is the first time in American history that there is an
all-of-government effort to dismantle left-wing terrorism,” Miller
said.
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