New US National Counterterrorism Strategy Targets Drug Cartels, Some Left-Wing Groups

President Trump on Wednesday signed a new national counterterrorism strategy that designates drug cartels and left-wing extremist groups as domestic threats.

The Details: The 16-page strategy includes three categories: narcoterrorists and transnational gangs, legacy Islamist terrorists and violent left-wing extremists, including Antifa. According to a senior official at the National Security Council, it also prioritizes the "rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups, whose ideologies are anti-American, radically pro-gender or anarchist." The strategy lists several ways it was addressing threats from these groups, including identifying terror plots before they happen, cutting off funding and breaking up "collaboration" between "nation-states and threat groups" and the "far-left and Islamists," like the "Red-Green alliance." The Trump administration will also look at how domestic online activities could incite violence.

For Context: According to the Trump administration, the strategy is part of an effort to remove threats in the US "who were let in…under the Biden administration." Politico (Lean Left bias) said the concentration was a "sharp departure" from Former President Biden, who called white supremacy the "most dangerous terrorist threat" to the nation. A Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) analysis found that 2025 was the first time in over 30 years that left-wing terrorist attacks outnumbered attacks from the far-right.

From the Right: Many outlets on the right focused on Trump targeting drug cartels and terrorist groups like ISIS and al-Queda. New York Post (Lean Right) and OANN (Right) framed the strategy positively, with The Post writing, it's a "blueprint centered on protecting the homeland." The New York Post also said the move differs from Biden, who "prioritized investigating traditional Christians and…secretly kept tabs on Catholic priests." Fox News (Right) emphasized the threat of left-wing groups, the increase in left-wing violence and the opportunity the strategy gives law enforcement for its investigations.

From the Left: Many outlets on the left emphasized Trump targeting left-wing groups and "extremist transgender ideology." CNN (Lean Left) said the Trump administration has "ramped up" its rhetoric around people in groups like Antifa despite "struggl[ing] to answer basic questions about the organizations." It said while the US has faced several attacks from people opposing the administration, attacks from left-wing groups "is far more rare." The Guardian (Left) focused on the Trump administration accusing Europe of being an "incubator" for terrorism fuelled by mass migration in the strategy. It cited the report calling on Europe to "act now and half its willful decline," and framed these calls to action within Trump "lash[ing] out at European Nato allies."

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