NSPM-7: directing federal agencies to investigate ideological 'indicia'

Editor's note: the memorandum's own text directs investigations tied to ideological markers, but no court or official finding establishes it as an unlawful use of power.

On September 22, 2025, Trump signed an order purporting to designate 'Antifa' as a domestic terrorist organization. Three days later he issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, 'Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence.' The memorandum states that a pattern of violent activity is united 'under the umbrella of self-described anti-fascism,' and that the '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.' It directs Joint Terrorism Task Forces to investigate and disrupt 'the organized structures, networks, entities, organizations, funding sources, and predicate actions behind them.'

The financial provisions reach nonprofits directly. The memorandum directs the Treasury Secretary to identify and disrupt financial networks, and the IRS Commissioner to ensure that no tax-exempt entity is 'directly or indirectly' financing political violence, and to refer such organizations 'and the employees and officers of such organizations' to the Justice Department for investigation and possible prosecution. On the day it was issued, the DOJ announced an investigation into the Open Society Foundations. Stephen Miller described it as the first all-of-government effort in American history to dismantle what he called left-wing terrorism. Attorney General Bondi's implementing guidance of December 4, 2025 ordered every federal law enforcement agency to review five years of files for material related to 'Antifa' and transmit it to the FBI, and directed the FBI to establish a cash reward system for information identifying leaders of what it called domestic terrorist organizations.

The constitutional objection is that Congress has never created a domestic terrorist organization designation, in part because such a regime risks punishing belief and association rather than conduct. The ACLU notes that the memorandum creates no new federal powers or crimes and that the 'designation' label carries no legal force on its own, while warning that it invites selective targeting of speakers by viewpoint. The Brennan Center's Faiza Patel said the order 'is not an order that is directed at criminal activity or terrorism, even though it uses those words frequently.' Bondi's guidance contains a footnote disclaiming investigations based solely on First Amendment activity. Arnold and Porter advised clients that the memorandum 'makes clear that DOJ intends to target tax-exempt organizations and their funders for investigation and potential criminal prosecution, including based on activities that have historically been viewed as protected by the First Amendment.'