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 orders crackdown on ‘left wing terrorism’ in escalation of a campaign against political rivals
President Donald Trump on Thursday directed his administration to crack down on backers of what he dubbed 鈥渓eft-wing terrorism,鈥 naming two top Democratic donors as he alleged without evidence a vast conspiracy to finance violent protests against the government.
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)
President Donald Trump on Thursday directed his administration to crack down on backers of what he dubbed 鈥渓eft-wing terrorism,鈥 naming two top Democratic donors as he alleged without evidence a vast conspiracy to finance violent protests against the government.
Trump鈥檚 directive put the FBI鈥檚 Joint Terrorism Taskforce in the lead and said the effort would span agencies across the administration, including the , 鈥渢o identify and disrupt financial networks that fund domestic terrorism and political violence.鈥
The pursuit of what the president said were the funders of 鈥渁gitators and anarchists鈥 is the latest instance of Trump using the power of his office to pursue his political rivals. When pressed by a reporter to name any possible targets, he suggested two of the Democratic Party鈥檚 top donors 鈥 billionaires and .
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鈥淚f they are funding these things, they’re going to have some problems,鈥 Trump said.
Trump had threatened such an order after the earlier this month of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Dallas, killing one detainee and wounding two others. Authorities have identified the suspected gunmen , but no information has been made public so far to suggest they were backed by a wider network.
In a statement Thursday, before Trump’s announcement, Soros’ Open Society Foundation in a statement referred to previous accusations made by the Republican president, saying its activities are peaceful and lawful.
鈥淭hese 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,鈥 the organizations said.
Hoffman, who helped start PayPal and the networking site LinkedIn, could not immediately be reached for comment.
