Echoes of Red Scare in Trump memo

White House rejects claims that 'domestic terrorism' campaign is a front for vengeance.

- BY KEVIN RECTOR

Trump displays his signed memorandum on countering ",domestic terrorism" Thursday.

(ALEX BRANDON Associated Press)

At a tense political moment in the wake of conservative lightning rod Charlie Kirk's killing, President Trump signed a presidential memorandum focusing federal law enforcement on disrupting "domestic terrorism."

The memo appeared to focus on political violence. But during a White House signing Thursday, the president and his top advisors repeatedly hinted at a much broader campaign of suppression against the American left, referencing as problematic both the simple printing of protest signs and the prominent racial justice movement Black Lives Matter.

"We're looking at the funders of a lot of these groups. You know, when you see the signs and they're all beautiful signs made professionally, these aren't your protesters that make the sign in their basement late in the evening because they really believe it. These are anarchists and agitators," Trump said.

"Whether it be going back to the riots that started with Black Lives Matter and all the way through to the antifa riots, the attacks on ICE officers, the doxxing campaigns and now the political assassinations these are not lone, isolated events," said Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff. "This is part of an organized campaign of radical left terrorism."

Neither Trump nor Miller nor the other top administration officials flanking them including Vice President JD Vance, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel offered any evidence of such a widespread left-wing terrorism campaign, or many details about how the memo would be put into action.