John,
Trump’s new National Security Presidential Memorandum, NSPM-7, is so sweeping, it gives government agencies carte blanche to define organizations that engage in critical thought, independent journalism, and community organizing as “terrorist” organizations -- to strip them of nonprofit status, and to refer those who criticize the president for criminal prosecution.
The implementation of this memo is a threat to a multi-party democratic society. Using such vague terms as “anti-American,” “anti-capitalist,” and “anti-Christian,” NSPM-7 can be used to reinforce the dominance of a white, Christian, male–centered political order over anyone who refuses to conform in their politics, culture, or religion.
The phraseology is reminiscent of the House Un-American Activities Committee -- the McCarthy-era apparatus that terrorized artists, writers, labor educators, and civil rights organizers for holding ideas deemed “subversive.” In the 1940s and ’50s, HUAC destroyed the careers of actors and screenwriters and crushed grassroots arts and civil rights groups.
Now, NSPM-7 can be twisted to criminalize nearly any work of journalism, scholarship, or community organizing that challenges state power. Under this memo, exposing corruption, reporting on protests, practicing a non-Christian religion, or uplifting marginalized voices could all be branded as “terrorist” acts, accused of “directly or indirectly” supporting political violence.
Tell Acting IRS Commissioner Scott Bessent, charged with enforcing Trump’s threats, that free speech, a free press, and public dissent are basic Constitutional rights, NOT “domestic terrorism.”
If NSPM-7 stands, nonprofit newsrooms, documentary filmmakers, arts organizations, community groups, and creative collectives could be dismantled for doing exactly what authoritarian movements fear most: reporting the truth, elevating marginalized voices, documenting protest, and challenging the ideology of a single ruling faction.
During the McCarthy era, similar powers were used to destroy independent publishers, arts workshops, cultural exchanges, and educational centers. NSPM-7 aims to bring back these baseless persecutions -- this time, propped up by the machinery of the modern surveillance state.
A country where criticism of the president is rebranded as terrorism is not a democracy. It is a country sliding toward permanent, one-party rule enforced through fear, silence, and the policing of anyone who falls outside the narrow mold of white Christian male power.
Tell Acting IRS Commissioner Scott Bessent: Free speech is not terrorism. Do not weaponize NSPM-7 against nonprofits, journalists, or communities exercising their basic rights as Americans.
Thank you for standing in defense of the constitutional freedoms that fuel creativity, journalism, and freedom of thought.
- DFA AF Team
