The Trump administration is embarking on an expansive effort to root out what it sees as rampant left-wing domestic terrorism, raising concerns among some security experts and lawmakers that broad categories of Americans’ political speech could come under surveillance.

Thursday marks a first deadline, set earlier this month in a memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi, for all federal law-enforcement agencies to “coordinate delivery” of their intelligence files on “Antifa” and “Antifa-related” activities to the FBI. Bondi has tasked the agency with using those files to draw up lists of Americans and foreigners to investigate as part of a campaign directed by President Donald Trump against what his administration views as a growing threat of political violence by the American left.

“Left-wing organizations have fueled violent riots, organized attacks against law enforcement officers, coordinated illegal doxing campaigns, arranged drop points for weapons and riot materials, and more,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said. “The Trump Administration will get to the bottom of this vast network inciting violence in American communities.”

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Bondi’s Dec. 4 memorandum, which was first reported by journalist Ken Klippenstein and later confirmed by the Justice Department to The Washington Post, listed “anti-Americanism,” “anti-capitalism,” “anti-Christianity,” “opposition to law and immigration enforcement,” “radical gender ideology,” and “hostility towards traditional views on family, religion, and morality” as some of the political agendas espoused by the individuals who might merit investigation.

The memo says the government will pursue people “with a willingness to use violence against law-abiding citizenry to serve those beliefs,” making no mention of violent extremism animated by right-wing or other viewpoints. Citing the phrase “Hey Fascist! Catch!” inscribed on a bullet casing of Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer, Bondi wrote: “Violence against what extremists claim to be fascism is the clarion call of recent domestic terrorism.”

On Monday, the lead federal prosecutor in Los Angeles credited the administration’s new focus on left-wing crime for the arrest and charging of four alleged members of the leftist Turtle Island Liberation Front, who prosecutors say were plotting to bomb multiple L.A. locations on New Year’s Eve.

This year is the first in a decade in which left-wing violent extremism outpaced right-wing violent extremism, according to one recent study, in part because the latter has plummeted since Trump’s reelection. {snip}

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White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is one of a number of administration figures who have moved into government housing in the wake of what he called “terroristic threats.” Miller hailed the administration’s approach in an X post Monday, saying “vast government resources have been unleashed to find and dismantle the violent fifth column of domestic terrorists clandestinely operating inside the United States.”

The federal government has broad powers to surveil individuals and groups for terrorism investigations, especially since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The FBI and its partner agencies have many commercial tools, from facial recognition software to license plate and mobile phone location tracking databases to drones that record high-definition video. They are also able to conduct wiretaps, hack into phones remotely and conduct undercover investigations with approval.

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