{"id":233802,"date":"2025-09-17T12:28:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T12:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/233802\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T12:28:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T12:28:15","slug":"trumps-vow-to-hit-radical-left-after-kirk-killing-stirs-fears-hes-stifling-foes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/233802\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s vow to hit ‘radical left’ after Kirk killing stirs fears he’s stifling foes"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a> is escalating threats to crack down on what he describes as the \u201cradical left\u201d following Charlie Kirk\u2019s assassination<\/a>, stirring fears that his administration is trying to harness outrage over the killing to suppress political opposition.<\/p>\n

Without establishing any link to last week\u2019s shooting, the Republican president and members of his administration have discussed classifying some groups as domestic terrorists, ordering racketeering investigations and revoking tax-exempt status for progressive nonprofits. The White House pointed to Indivisible, a progressive activist network, and the Open Society Foundations, founded by George Soros, as potential subjects of scrutiny. <\/p>\n

Although administration officials insist that their focus is preventing violence, critics see an extension of Trump\u2019s campaign of retribution against his political enemies and an erosion of free speech rights. Any moves to weaken liberal groups could also shift the political landscape ahead of next year\u2019s midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress and statehouses across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe radical left has done tremendous damage to the country,\u201d Trump told reporters on Tuesday morning when leaving for a state visit to the United Kingdom.<\/a> \u201cBut we\u2019re fixing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has sometimes made similar threats<\/a> without following through. But now there\u2019s renewed interest fueled by anger over the killing of Kirk, a conservative activist<\/a> who was a prominent supporter of Trump and friends with many of his advisers.<\/p>\n

Dozens of nonprofit leaders, representing organizations including the Ford Foundation, the Omidyar Network and the MacArthur Foundation, released a joint letter saying \u201cwe reject attempts to exploit political violence to mischaracterize our good work or restrict our fundamental freedoms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAttempts to silence speech, criminalize opposing viewpoints, and misrepresent and limit charitable giving undermine our democracy and harm all Americans,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

White House blames \u2018terrorist networks\u2019<\/p>\n

Authorities said they believe the suspect in Kirk\u2019s assassination acted alone, and they charged him with murder<\/a> on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

However, administration officials have repeatedly made sweeping statements about the need for broader investigations and punishments related to Kirk\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Attorney General Pam Bondi blamed \u201cleft-wing radicals\u201d for the shooting and said \u201cthey will be held accountable.\u201d Stephen Miller, a top policy adviser, said there was an \u201corganized campaign that led to this assassination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller\u2019s comments came during a conversation with Vice President JD Vance, who was guest-hosting Kirk\u2019s talk show from his ceremonial office in the White House on Monday. <\/p>\n

Miller said he was feeling \u201cfocused, righteous anger,\u201d and \u201cwe are going to channel all of the anger\u201d as they work to \u201cuproot and dismantle these terrorist networks\u201d by using \u201cevery resource we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vance blamed \u201ccrazies on the far left\u201d for saying the White House would \u201cgo after constitutionally protected speech.\u201d Instead, he said, \u201cWe\u2019re going to go after the NGO network that foments, facilitates and engages in violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked for examples, the White House pointed to demonstrations where police officers and federal agents have been injured, as well as the distribution of goggles and face masks during protests over immigration enforcement in Los Angeles. <\/p>\n

There was also a report that Indivisible offered to reimburse people who gathered at Tesla dealerships to oppose Elon Musk\u2019s leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency. Sometimes cars were later vandalized.<\/p>\n

Indivisible\u2019s leadership has said \u201cpolitical violence is a cancer on democracy\u201d and said that their own organization has \u201cbeen threatened by right-wingers all year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonprofits brace for impact<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s executive actions have rattled nonprofit groups with attempts to limit their work or freeze federal funding, but more aggressive proposals to revoke tax-exempt status never materialized. <\/p>\n

Now the mood has darkened as nonprofits recruit lawyers and bolster the security of their offices and staff. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a heightened atmosphere in the wake of political violence, and organizations who fear they might be unjustly targeted in its wake are making sure that they are ready,\u201d said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the government watchdog group Public Citizen.<\/p>\n

Trump made retribution against political enemies<\/a> a cornerstone of his comeback campaign, and he\u2019s mobilized the federal government to reshape law firms, universities and other traditionally independent institutions. He also ordered an investigation into ActBlue<\/a>, an online liberal fundraising platform. <\/p>\n

Some nonprofits expect the administration to focus on prominent funders like Soros, a liberal billionaire who has been a conservative target for years, to send a chill through the donor community. <\/p>\n

Trump recently said Soros should face a racketeering investigation, though he didn\u2019t make any specific allegations. The Open Society Foundations condemned violence and Kirk\u2019s assassination in a statement and said \u201cit is disgraceful to use this tragedy for political ends to dangerously divide Americans and attack the First Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, wrote on social media that \u201cthe murder of Charlie Kirk could have united Americans to confront political violence\u201d but \u201cTrump and his anti-democratic radicals look to be readying a campaign to destroy dissent.\u201d<\/p>\n

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said \u201cit is disingenuous and false for Democrats to say administration actions are about political speech.\u201d She said the goal is to \u201ctarget those committing criminal acts and hold them accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans back Trump\u2019s calls for investigations<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s concerns about political violence are noticeably partisan. He described people who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as \u201chostages\u201d and \u201cpatriots,\u201d and he pardoned 1,500 of them on his first day back in the Oval Office. He also mocked House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi after an attack on her husband. <\/p>\n

When Trump condemned Kirk\u2019s killing in a video message last week, he mentioned several examples of \u201cradical left political violence\u201d but ignored attacks on Democrats. <\/p>\n

Asked on Monday about the killing of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman over the summer, Trump said \u201cI\u2019m not familiar\u201d with the case. <\/p>\n

\u201cTrump shrugs at right-wing political violence,\u201d said Ezra Levin, the co-executive director of Indivisible, in a newsletter. <\/p>\n

Some conservative commentators have cheered on a potential crackdown. Laura Loomer, a conspiracy theorist with a long record of bigoted comments, said \u201clet\u2019s shut the left down.\u201d She also said that she wants Trump \u201cto be the \u2018dictator\u2019 the left thinks he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katie Miller, the wife of Stephen Miller and a former administration spokeswoman, asked Bondi whether there would be \u201cmore law enforcement going after these groups\u201d and \u201cputting cuffs on people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech,\u201d Bondi said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s across the aisle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her comments sparked a backlash from across the political spectrum, since even hate speech is generally considered to be protected under the First Amendment. Bondi was more circumspect on social media on Tuesday morning, saying they would focus on \u201chate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump is getting more support from Republicans in Congress. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas<\/a> and others proposed legislation that would enable the Justice Department to use racketeering laws, originally envisioned to combat organized crime, to prosecute violent protesters and the groups that support them.<\/p>\n

Rep. Chip Roy of Texas wants the House to create a special committee to investigate the nonprofit groups, saying \u201cwe must follow the money to identify the perpetrators of the coordinated anti-American assaults being carried out against us.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump is escalating threats to crack down on what he describes as the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":233803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[10422,119587,19719,116391,84,69,90,66,57,125773,2055,2066,59917,67722,49190,224,18598,50,11335,3674,80,402,45891,11203,4411,5343,376,67,132,68,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-233802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-abigail-jackson","10":"tag-assassination-of-charlie-kirk","11":"tag-charlie-kirk","12":"tag-chris-murphy","13":"tag-district-of-columbia","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-elections","16":"tag-elon-musk","17":"tag-general-news","18":"tag-george-soros","19":"tag-government-and-politics","20":"tag-jd-vance","21":"tag-katie-miller","22":"tag-laura-loomer","23":"tag-lisa-gilbert","24":"tag-los-angeles","25":"tag-melissa-hortman","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-pam-bondi","28":"tag-political-violence","29":"tag-politics","30":"tag-protests-and-demonstrations","31":"tag-radicalism","32":"tag-stephen-miller","33":"tag-ted-cruz","34":"tag-terrorism","35":"tag-united-kingdom","36":"tag-united-states","37":"tag-unitedstates","38":"tag-us","39":"tag-washington-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}