A Democracy Drive Thread
Antifa, protesters, and activists in the administration’s crosshairs.
Beginning in 2025 the administration moved aggressively against the political left — labeling a loosely defined movement a terrorist organization, federalizing the response to protests, and bringing terrorism charges against demonstrators. This thread tracks that campaign in chronological order, with sources. It does not minimize genuine violence — an armed July 4, 2025 attack on a Texas ICE facility left an officer wounded — but it follows what the government built on top of it: a first-ever domestic terrorism designation with no statutory basis, troop deployments that courts found unlawful, and prosecutions that treated black clothing and encrypted messaging as evidence of terrorism.
March 4, 2025
In his own words
He did not define “illegal.” Days later ICE arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a green-card holder who had led Columbia’s Gaza protests.
March 7, 2025
On the ground
A joint federal task force announced the review March 3 and the cancellation four days later. The Wall Street Journal reported officials wanted federal oversight of the university through a consent decree. Columbia later agreed to many of the demands and paid more than $200 million to settle.
March 13, 2025
On the ground
The government cited an expired student visa. Her April 2024 arrest at a Columbia protest had been sealed. She said she had a seizure in custody and faced inhumane conditions at the Prairieland Detention Center, and was the last of the Columbia protesters still detained when she was released on March 16, 2026.
April 6, 2025
On the ground
He refused to surrender the phone because it held privileged client information, and was released after 90 minutes.
April 28, 2025
In his own words
Pritzker had said, “These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace,” promising to fight “with every megaphone and microphone that we have.”
“His comments, if nothing else, could be construed as inciting violence.”
May 27, 2025
On the ground
The Mayday USA “Don’t Mess With Our Kids” event led to 23 arrests, mostly of counter-protesters. Seattle’s mayor had said the group bore responsibility.
June 27, 2025
On the ground
The probe began after complaints from Stephen Miller’s former group America First Legal. Ryan said he feared fighting would cost the university federal funding. It was the first time the administration forced out a university president.
July 4, 2025
On the night of July 4, 2025 a group gathered outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, shooting fireworks and spray-painting cars; one man, Benjamin Song, opened fire on law enforcement and an Alvarado police officer was shot in the neck. The attack — real and violent — became the centerpiece of the administration’s argument that an organized “antifa” threat justified extraordinary measures.
July 17, 2025
On the ground
Most staff who produce the report were eliminated on July 11, 2025 in a layoff of more than 1,300 State Department employees. The 2025 report, normally released in June, was delayed.
August 18, 2025
On the ground
The categories also cover “supporting terrorism” and patterns of trespassing or obstructing highways at protests. The department would decide by a “preponderance of evidence,” and disqualified employers would wait 10 years to regain eligibility.
August 27, 2025
In his own words
Trump posted that Soros “and his wonderful Radical Left son, should be charged with RICO because of their support of Violent Protests.” In September he said Soros “should be in jail.” Aakash Singh, an aide to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, then directed U.S. attorney’s offices to draft investigative plans targeting the foundations, citing possible charges from arson to wire fraud, RICO and material support for terrorism. Sen. Ted Cruz introduced a bill adding rioting to RICO predicates aimed at protest funders. Open Society called the claims “false” and “outrageous.”
“George Soros, and his wonderful Radical Left son, should be charged with RICO because of their support of Violent Protests.”
September 11, 2025
On the ground
“We are tracking all these very closely — and will address, immediately. Completely unacceptable,” Hegseth wrote on Sept. 11, 2025, responding to spokesman Sean Parnell’s statement that the department had “zero tolerance.” He directed staff to hunt for negative posts about Kirk, and at least one Marine was fired.
“We are tracking all these very closely — and will address, immediately. Completely unacceptable.”
September 12, 2025
In his own words
Co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked, “We have radicals on the right as well. How do we fix this country?” Trump answered on Sept. 12, 2025: “I’ll tell you something that’s going to get me in trouble, but I couldn’t care less. The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime.” He said the radicals on the left are “the problem,” and are “vicious” and “horrible.”
“I couldn’t care less. The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime.”
On the ground
The University of California’s lawyers decided to comply with the Office for Civil Rights’ demand, and the people named received letters in September 2025. Butler said the university gave no information on the allegations, suspended its normal complaint procedures, and declined to share what it sent the government. The list included international students, lecturers and part-time faculty. Butler called it “a well-known practice from the McCarthy Era.”
September 13, 2025
On the ground
The study found that since 1990 far-right extremists committed 227 attacks killing more than 520 people, versus 42 far-left attacks killing 78. The page now says the department is reviewing its websites under recent executive orders.
September 15, 2025
In his own words
The employee in Portage, Michigan, was fired by the company after refusing a Republican Party order. Bondi said: “Businesses cannot discriminate. If you wanna go in and print posters with Charlie’s pictures on them for a vigil, you have to let them do that. We can prosecute you for that.” A DOJ spokesperson later said the Civil Rights Division was not proceeding. The same week Bondi suggested prosecuting “hate speech,” then walked it back.
“We can prosecute you for that.”
September 22, 2025
The president signed an executive order declaring Antifa a “domestic terrorist organization” and directing federal agencies to “investigate, disrupt, and dismantle” it and its funding sources. It was the first time a U.S. president had purported to designate a domestic group as terrorist — a label with no basis in federal statute, which provides no mechanism for designating domestic organizations. Legal scholars warned it was aimed at criminalizing political opposition.
September 25, 2025
On the ground
The page quoted governors and members of Congress criticizing ICE and claimed a “1,000% surge” in assaults on agents.
September 27, 2025
The administration moved to federalize roughly 200 Oregon National Guard troops and deploy them to Portland in response to protests at a local ICE facility, over the objection of the state’s governor. Oregon and the City of Portland sued; that November a federal judge issued a permanent injunction, finding there was no rebellion and that the president’s portrayal of Portland was “simply untethered to the facts.” The administration appealed to the Ninth Circuit.
October 1, 2025
The administration moved against ICEBlock, a free app that let users report sightings of ICE agents. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the government was working with the DOJ to see whether it could prosecute the developer, U.S. citizen Joshua Aaron; under federal pressure, Apple and Google removed ICE-tracking apps from their stores. Aaron sued, arguing the threats and takedown violated his First Amendment rights.
October 14, 2025
On the ground
“The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans,” the department said. One revoked post accused Kirk of spreading “racist, xenophobic, misogynistic rhetoric.”
On the ground
Bondi said the page was used to “dox and target” agents sent to Chicago. Meta said it was removed for violating its policies against “coordinated harm.” It came days after Apple pulled the ICEBlock app under pressure from Bondi.
October 23, 2025
On the ground
Prosecutors allege the group surrounded and banged on an agent’s vehicle on September 26 during “Operation Midway Blitz,” scratching it and breaking a mirror. Abughazaleh, running in Illinois’s 9th District, called it an “attempt by the Trump administration to criminalize protest.” A judge later dismissed the conspiracy charge against the “Broadview Six.”
December 4, 2025
On the ground
Bondi’s December 4, 2025 memo implemented Trump’s national-security directive NSPM-7, issued after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. It directs the FBI to build a list of groups that “may constitute domestic terrorism,” with the first report due January 3 and updates every 30 days, and to establish a cash reward system for information leading to the arrest of their leaders. The categories include “extremism on migration, race, and gender” and “hostility towards traditional” views on family, religion and morality. The ACLU called the directive designed to silence political opponents.
December 8, 2025
In his own words
On Fox News’ “Hannity,” Noem said Mamdani “could be violating the Constitution by giving advice on how to evade law enforcement,” adding: “We’re certainly going after and looking into all of that with coordination of the Department of Justice.” In the video, Mamdani told New Yorkers: “If ICE does not have a judicial warrant signed by a judge, you have the right to say, ‘I do not consent to entry,’ and the right to keep your door closed,” while also saying people may not impede an investigation.
“We’re certainly going after and looking into all of that with coordination of the Department of Justice.”
February 17, 2026
DHS issued hundreds of administrative subpoenas — a tool once reserved for emergencies like child abductions — to Google, Meta, Reddit and Discord, seeking the names, emails and phone numbers behind accounts that track or criticize ICE. Reporting indicated some companies complied. The demands appeared aimed at unmasking people who had criticized the agency or noted where its agents were operating. One target was a Canadian man who hasn’t entered the U.S. since 2015. A February 14, 2026 summons, issued under a 1930 customs law with no judge involved, demanded Google’s records of his location and activity over X posts condemning the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The ACLU sued to quash it in May 2026.
February 25, 2026
In his own words
During the Feb. 24, 2026 address, Omar and Tlaib shouted “you’re killing Americans” as Trump touted his immigration crackdown, weeks after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minnesota. On Truth Social the next day, Trump wrote that they “had the bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people, LUNATICS, mentally deranged and sick who, frankly, look like they should be institutionalized,” and “We should send them back from where they came — as fast as possible.” He added that they “should actually get on a boat with Trump Deranged Robert De Niro, another sick and demented person with, I believe, an extremely Low IQ, who has absolutely no idea what he is doing or saying — some of which is seriously CRIMINAL!” De Niro had headlined a Democratic “State of the Swamp” counter-event the same night. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the remarks “xenophobic” and “disgraceful.”
“We should send them back from where they came — as fast as possible.”
March 13, 2026
After a trial in Fort Worth, a federal jury convicted nine defendants tied to the Prairieland protest of terrorism-related charges, including the first use of a “material support for terrorism” charge against alleged antifa members. Prosecutors told the jury that wearing all-black “black bloc” clothing and using the encrypted Signal app were themselves evidence of material support for terrorism.
March 18, 2026
NPR reported that people arrested while protesting ICE said federal agents took DNA samples from them, with accounts from Illinois, Oregon and Minnesota describing the same pattern in sworn statements. DHS said federal law requires collecting DNA from those arrested or charged; critics warned it was building a genetic database of political protesters.
March 31, 2026
U.S. counterterrorism officials began planning an international summit, tentatively set for the summer, to convene officials from multiple countries to share intelligence and coordinate against “antifa” and similar left-wing movements. Sebastian Gorka, the senior counterterrorism director on the National Security Council, was a leader of the effort.
On the ground
The EEOC issued the subpoena in summer 2025 in an antisemitism investigation. It sought lists of Jewish community members, employees in the Jewish Studies Program, and staff and faculty who took part in antisemitism “listening sessions” the university had promised would be confidential. On March 31, 2026, U.S. District Judge Gerald Pappert dismissed the constitutional objections and called comparisons to the Holocaust and Nazi Germany “unfortunate and inappropriate.” Penn said requiring it “to create lists of Jewish faculty and staff, and to provide personal contact information, raises serious privacy and First Amendment concerns.”
June 23, 2026
Eight defendants were sentenced in Fort Worth to a combined roughly 450 years in federal prison. Benjamin Song, convicted of the attempted murder of the wounded officer, received 100 years. The Justice Department hailed the outcome as a landmark victory in its crackdown on left-wing activism.
Some of the harshest sentences went to people far from the gunfire. Daniel “Des” Sanchez Estrada — an artist who was not even present at the July 4 protest — was sentenced to 30 years for “corruptly concealing a record,” having moved a box of his own antifascist zines after the protest. His wife, Maricela Rueda, received 70 years, in part for asking him to move the box. Sanchez Estrada’s sentence is longer than many January 6 defendants received for storming the Capitol.
July 13, 2026
On the ground
On July 13, 2026, Trump amplified on Truth Social a video by right-wing radio host Michael Savage titled “DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM MUST BE CRIMINALIZED; LEADERS DEPORTED,” which called for the criminalization of democratic socialism and the deportation of its proponents — naming figures such as New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Trump reposted it without additional comment.
“DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM MUST BE CRIMINALIZED; LEADERS DEPORTED.”
July 14, 2026
In his own words
On July 14, 2026, House Speaker Mike Johnson justified a $350 billion supplemental Pentagon spending request — on top of a record $1.1 trillion military bill — by casting it partly as domestic: “We’re fighting communism on our own shores.” Much of the request, he acknowledged, was classified. The framing drew scrutiny for tying an enormous military budget to a domestic ideological enemy, at a moment when courts had already ruled some of Trump’s troop deployments to U.S. cities unlawful.
“We’re fighting communism on our own shores.”
July 16, 2026
In his own words
On July 16, 2026, opening the State Department’s “Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism,” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller described left-wing political violence as “a fatal cancer to civilization” and cast leftists and left-wing organizations as “enemies of civilization,” vowing to use the full power of the state to dismantle them. He tied the effort to National Security Presidential Memorandum-7, a Trump directive to “investigate and disrupt” groups the administration blames for political violence.