Trump's Paper Tiger Executive Actions Targeting Anti-fascism

Yesterday, Trump signed the National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7). If you’ve read the text of it, you’re probably scared. That’s the point. The document is a masterclass in intimidation, dressed up in the language of national security. It talks of "domestic terrorism" and "organized political violence" in ominous terms. It directs the entire federal law enforcement and regulatory apparatus from the FBI to the DOJ, Treasury Dept. and the IRS, to "disrupt," "dismantle," and "prosecute" a vaguely defined ideological enemy.^[1]

It feels like the legal framework for a dictatorship. But before you panic, we need to understand what this order is and, more importantly, what it is not.

NSPM-7 creates no new laws.

Read that again. The order does not create a new federal crime of "domestic terrorism."^[2] It cannot legally designate a domestic group as a terrorist organization in the way it can with foreign groups, because the First Amendment stands in the way.^[3] The entire memorandum is a strategic directive to weaponize existing laws—many of which are complex, broad, and historically used to crush dissent—against the administration's political enemies.^[4] The designation of "domestic terror group" is only an internal designation by the Attorney General that does not contain the force of law. Most importantly, it is asking the domestic federal law enforcement apparatus, which has been wholly gutted and demoralized, to suddenly pivot to yet another directive.

This is not a new strategy by this administration. It is simply a new iteration of the playbook we have seen before just this year. This administration has a history of attempting to weaken and dismantle institutions it perceives as centers of opposition. We saw it in the pressure campaigns against law firms and in the attacks on universities as hotbeds of “antisemitism." The goal was never to win every legal fight, but to make the fight so costly, so toxic, and so exhausting that these institutions would eventually buckle, self-censor, and lose their will to resist.

NSPM-7 applies this same logic to the entire ecosystem of liberal civil society. It is a declaration of administrative war on NGO’s and the backbone of a democratic society. The goal is not necessarily to win convictions or imprison political enemies, but to achieve a strategic dismantling of non-profits, advocacy groups, and protest movements by burying them under the weight of the legal process itself.

This overarching strategy is taken from fellow travelers in the authoritarian project in Russia and Hungary where Putin and Orban have gutted and dismantled civil society to enable their strongman rule without meaningful challenge. What we're seeing are those tactics being adopted for a domestic purpose to eliminate opposition to Trump. This strategy can be broken down into three overall goals.

The first goal is to intimidate the funders. Large philanthropic and institutional donations are the backbone of liberal civil society that funds everything from the ACLU to your local YMCA. The order explicitly directs the IRS and the Treasury Department to hunt for nonprofits "directly or indirectly financing political violence." The term "indirectly" is the key. A foundation gives a grant to an advocacy group that organizes a protest where a window gets broken, and suddenly that foundation is "indirectly financing" terrorism. The threat of a politically motivated audit, the loss of tax-exempt status, or being flagged by Treasury's financial crimes unit is enough to scare away donors and foundations. The goal is to starve civil society of its monetary and financial resources.

The second step is to bankrupt civil society with lawfare. The order encourages prosecutors to use powerful, complicated, and terrifying statutes like the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act against political organizers.^[5] RICO was designed to take down the Mafia, and the threat of a RICO indictment, with the ability to seize assets before a trial even begins, is devastating. The administration doesn't need to prove you're a mob boss; it just needs to accuse you of being one. The legal fees alone can destroy an organization, and that’s the point.^[6] Protesting is not racketeering, but they are betting you can't afford to prove that in court.

The final and most crucial goal is to create a climate of fear. The real target of this order is not just a handful of organizations; it is the willingness of every individual to participate in civil society. The knowledge that the government is monitoring protests, that the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Forces are investigating "radicalizing" speech, and that your name could end up in a file for donating to the "wrong" cause is designed to produce a systemic chilling effect.^[7] It is meant to make you think twice before you speak out, before you show up, before you click "donate." The goal is mass self-censorship, driven by the fear that your constitutionally protected activities could be misconstrued as terrorism.

This executive order is effectively a paper tiger, but a paper tiger with the full weight of the federal government behind it. The goal is ultimately to produce intimidation, financial ruin, and bureaucratic harassment. The power of the NSPM-7 is directly proportional to our fear of it.

They are betting that the threat of investigation will be enough to dismantle the networks of opposition. They are betting that funders will flee, activists will stay home, and organizations will collapse under legal bills.

They are betting that we will be too scared to push back against this creeping authoritarianism.

Our job is to prove them wrong.