WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 05: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent adjust his glasses as U.S. President Donald Trump announces plans for the 2026 G20 summit during a press availability in the Oval Office of the Whi...WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 05: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent adjust his glasses as U.S. President Donald Trump announces plans for the 2026 G20 summit during a press availability in the Oval Office of the White House on September 05, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Trump detailed his administration's plans to host the 2026 Group of 20 summit of world leaders at his golf course and spa in Doral, Florida. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)MORE LESS
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that his department is in the process of launching a War on Terror-style campaign against progressive nonprofits.
“It says on its face that they’re going to go after funding mechanisms associated with progressive causes,” the person said of NSPM-7.
In his interview on Kirk’s podcast, Bessent cast the moves as necessary. The right, he suggested, is a victim, with political violence, supposedly from the left, hampering conservatives’ ability to speak and therefore requiring a federal response.
“We’re determined not only to honor [Kirk], but to keep our country safe, and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides,” he said. “As conservatives, we can’t be afraid to go out and speak. I know people are cancelling speeches, they’re having to bring down the size of the rallies.”
A former DOJ counterterrorism attorney told TPM last month that the government does not have to bring what would likely be extremely unviable material-support-for-terrorism cases against nonprofit groups to achieve its desired effect: suppressing speech.
“It says on its face that they’re going to go after funding mechanisms associated with progressive causes,” the person said of NSPM-7.
In his interview on Kirk’s podcast, Bessent cast the moves as necessary. The right, he suggested, is a victim, with political violence, supposedly from the left, hampering conservatives’ ability to speak and therefore requiring a federal response.
“We’re determined not only to honor [Kirk], but to keep our country safe, and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides,” he said. “As conservatives, we can’t be afraid to go out and speak. I know people are cancelling speeches, they’re having to bring down the size of the rallies.”
There’s no new law that Congress has created that would bring the concept of a domestic terrorist organization into existence, Owens said.
A former DOJ counterterrorism attorney told TPM last month that the government does not have to bring what would likely be extremely unviable material-support-for-terrorism cases against nonprofit groups to achieve its desired effect: suppressing speech.
“It says on its face that they’re going to go after funding mechanisms associated with progressive causes,” the person said of NSPM-7.
In his interview on Kirk’s podcast, Bessent cast the moves as necessary. The right, he suggested, is a victim, with political violence, supposedly from the left, hampering conservatives’ ability to speak and therefore requiring a federal response.
“We’re determined not only to honor [Kirk], but to keep our country safe, and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides,” he said. “As conservatives, we can’t be afraid to go out and speak. I know people are cancelling speeches, they’re having to bring down the size of the rallies.”
“The staff isn’t there,” Owens said. “The number of audits the IRS is conducting are approaching zero in the tax-exempt organizations area.”
There’s no new law that Congress has created that would bring the concept of a domestic terrorist organization into existence, Owens said.
A former DOJ counterterrorism attorney told TPM last month that the government does not have to bring what would likely be extremely unviable material-support-for-terrorism cases against nonprofit groups to achieve its desired effect: suppressing speech.
“It says on its face that they’re going to go after funding mechanisms associated with progressive causes,” the person said of NSPM-7.
In his interview on Kirk’s podcast, Bessent cast the moves as necessary. The right, he suggested, is a victim, with political violence, supposedly from the left, hampering conservatives’ ability to speak and therefore requiring a federal response.
“We’re determined not only to honor [Kirk], but to keep our country safe, and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides,” he said. “As conservatives, we can’t be afraid to go out and speak. I know people are cancelling speeches, they’re having to bring down the size of the rallies.”
How different agencies will interpret and act on the memorandum remains unclear. Bessent made the remarks during the Charlie Kirk mourn-a-thon while speaking with Andrew Kolvet, the slain activist’s former spokesman. Kolvet himself boosted the idea that Treasury is the “tip of the spear” in an effort to dismantle “Antifa” on social media this week. That context, and the administration’s degradation of its own enforcement capacity through several months of layoffs, has prompted some skepticism that it will be able to follow through, Marcus Owens, a former IRS official in charge of examining tax-exempt groups, told TPM.
“The staff isn’t there,” Owens said. “The number of audits the IRS is conducting are approaching zero in the tax-exempt organizations area.”
There’s no new law that Congress has created that would bring the concept of a domestic terrorist organization into existence, Owens said.
A former DOJ counterterrorism attorney told TPM last month that the government does not have to bring what would likely be extremely unviable material-support-for-terrorism cases against nonprofit groups to achieve its desired effect: suppressing speech.
“It says on its face that they’re going to go after funding mechanisms associated with progressive causes,” the person said of NSPM-7.
In his interview on Kirk’s podcast, Bessent cast the moves as necessary. The right, he suggested, is a victim, with political violence, supposedly from the left, hampering conservatives’ ability to speak and therefore requiring a federal response.
“We’re determined not only to honor [Kirk], but to keep our country safe, and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides,” he said. “As conservatives, we can’t be afraid to go out and speak. I know people are cancelling speeches, they’re having to bring down the size of the rallies.”
“What we’re concerned about is that it might be used as a political weapon to target nonprofits and force them to shift resources away from their missions to defend their name,” Saadian said.
How different agencies will interpret and act on the memorandum remains unclear. Bessent made the remarks during the Charlie Kirk mourn-a-thon while speaking with Andrew Kolvet, the slain activist’s former spokesman. Kolvet himself boosted the idea that Treasury is the “tip of the spear” in an effort to dismantle “Antifa” on social media this week. That context, and the administration’s degradation of its own enforcement capacity through several months of layoffs, has prompted some skepticism that it will be able to follow through, Marcus Owens, a former IRS official in charge of examining tax-exempt groups, told TPM.
“The staff isn’t there,” Owens said. “The number of audits the IRS is conducting are approaching zero in the tax-exempt organizations area.”
There’s no new law that Congress has created that would bring the concept of a domestic terrorist organization into existence, Owens said.
A former DOJ counterterrorism attorney told TPM last month that the government does not have to bring what would likely be extremely unviable material-support-for-terrorism cases against nonprofit groups to achieve its desired effect: suppressing speech.
“It says on its face that they’re going to go after funding mechanisms associated with progressive causes,” the person said of NSPM-7.
In his interview on Kirk’s podcast, Bessent cast the moves as necessary. The right, he suggested, is a victim, with political violence, supposedly from the left, hampering conservatives’ ability to speak and therefore requiring a federal response.
“We’re determined not only to honor [Kirk], but to keep our country safe, and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides,” he said. “As conservatives, we can’t be afraid to go out and speak. I know people are cancelling speeches, they’re having to bring down the size of the rallies.”
Sarah Saadian, senior vice president for public policy and campaigns at the National Council of Nonprofits, told TPM that the memo is “already having a chilling effect on nonprofits.” Even investigations that lead nowhere, Saadian said, would force nonprofits to redirect resources away from advocacy and towards defending themselves.
“What we’re concerned about is that it might be used as a political weapon to target nonprofits and force them to shift resources away from their missions to defend their name,” Saadian said.
How different agencies will interpret and act on the memorandum remains unclear. Bessent made the remarks during the Charlie Kirk mourn-a-thon while speaking with Andrew Kolvet, the slain activist’s former spokesman. Kolvet himself boosted the idea that Treasury is the “tip of the spear” in an effort to dismantle “Antifa” on social media this week. That context, and the administration’s degradation of its own enforcement capacity through several months of layoffs, has prompted some skepticism that it will be able to follow through, Marcus Owens, a former IRS official in charge of examining tax-exempt groups, told TPM.
“The staff isn’t there,” Owens said. “The number of audits the IRS is conducting are approaching zero in the tax-exempt organizations area.”
There’s no new law that Congress has created that would bring the concept of a domestic terrorist organization into existence, Owens said.
A former DOJ counterterrorism attorney told TPM last month that the government does not have to bring what would likely be extremely unviable material-support-for-terrorism cases against nonprofit groups to achieve its desired effect: suppressing speech.
“It says on its face that they’re going to go after funding mechanisms associated with progressive causes,” the person said of NSPM-7.
In his interview on Kirk’s podcast, Bessent cast the moves as necessary. The right, he suggested, is a victim, with political violence, supposedly from the left, hampering conservatives’ ability to speak and therefore requiring a federal response.
“We’re determined not only to honor [Kirk], but to keep our country safe, and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides,” he said. “As conservatives, we can’t be afraid to go out and speak. I know people are cancelling speeches, they’re having to bring down the size of the rallies.”
Bessent’s remarks suggest that Treasury may be starting to implement NSPM-7’s vision of a crackdown on progressive advocacy. There are other signs, as well. On the same day as the memo was issued, a senior DOJ official reportedly directed several U.S. Attorney’s Offices to open investigations into the Open Society Foundations, a nonprofit funded by billionaire and right-wing bogeyman George Soros. Earlier this month, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) sent Bessent a list of pro-Palestine non-profits, urging him to speed up investigations into the groups. The letter cited NSPM-7 as an authority to do so. A White House official told Reuters last week that investigations might target several other groups, including ActBlue, which is a significant funding platform for the Democratic Party and progressive causes, Indivisible, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, and two progressive Jewish groups, IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Sarah Saadian, senior vice president for public policy and campaigns at the National Council of Nonprofits, told TPM that the memo is “already having a chilling effect on nonprofits.” Even investigations that lead nowhere, Saadian said, would force nonprofits to redirect resources away from advocacy and towards defending themselves.
“What we’re concerned about is that it might be used as a political weapon to target nonprofits and force them to shift resources away from their missions to defend their name,” Saadian said.
How different agencies will interpret and act on the memorandum remains unclear. Bessent made the remarks during the Charlie Kirk mourn-a-thon while speaking with Andrew Kolvet, the slain activist’s former spokesman. Kolvet himself boosted the idea that Treasury is the “tip of the spear” in an effort to dismantle “Antifa” on social media this week. That context, and the administration’s degradation of its own enforcement capacity through several months of layoffs, has prompted some skepticism that it will be able to follow through, Marcus Owens, a former IRS official in charge of examining tax-exempt groups, told TPM.
“The staff isn’t there,” Owens said. “The number of audits the IRS is conducting are approaching zero in the tax-exempt organizations area.”
There’s no new law that Congress has created that would bring the concept of a domestic terrorist organization into existence, Owens said.
A former DOJ counterterrorism attorney told TPM last month that the government does not have to bring what would likely be extremely unviable material-support-for-terrorism cases against nonprofit groups to achieve its desired effect: suppressing speech.
“It says on its face that they’re going to go after funding mechanisms associated with progressive causes,” the person said of NSPM-7.
In his interview on Kirk’s podcast, Bessent cast the moves as necessary. The right, he suggested, is a victim, with political violence, supposedly from the left, hampering conservatives’ ability to speak and therefore requiring a federal response.
“We’re determined not only to honor [Kirk], but to keep our country safe, and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides,” he said. “As conservatives, we can’t be afraid to go out and speak. I know people are cancelling speeches, they’re having to bring down the size of the rallies.”
The memo directs Joint Terrorism Task Forces, groups that combine local law enforcement with the FBI, to examine advocacy organizations that the memo views as orchestrating political violence. But it also sets Treasury a significant task: to “identify and disrupt financial networks that fund domestic terrorism and political violence.” For that, it tasks offices traditionally used to track money laundering, sanctions evasion and foreign terrorist financing, among other things, with tracing “illicit funding streams” under the memo.
Bessent’s remarks suggest that Treasury may be starting to implement NSPM-7’s vision of a crackdown on progressive advocacy. There are other signs, as well. On the same day as the memo was issued, a senior DOJ official reportedly directed several U.S. Attorney’s Offices to open investigations into the Open Society Foundations, a nonprofit funded by billionaire and right-wing bogeyman George Soros. Earlier this month, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) sent Bessent a list of pro-Palestine non-profits, urging him to speed up investigations into the groups. The letter cited NSPM-7 as an authority to do so. A White House official told Reuters last week that investigations might target several other groups, including ActBlue, which is a significant funding platform for the Democratic Party and progressive causes, Indivisible, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, and two progressive Jewish groups, IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Sarah Saadian, senior vice president for public policy and campaigns at the National Council of Nonprofits, told TPM that the memo is “already having a chilling effect on nonprofits.” Even investigations that lead nowhere, Saadian said, would force nonprofits to redirect resources away from advocacy and towards defending themselves.
“What we’re concerned about is that it might be used as a political weapon to target nonprofits and force them to shift resources away from their missions to defend their name,” Saadian said.
How different agencies will interpret and act on the memorandum remains unclear. Bessent made the remarks during the Charlie Kirk mourn-a-thon while speaking with Andrew Kolvet, the slain activist’s former spokesman. Kolvet himself boosted the idea that Treasury is the “tip of the spear” in an effort to dismantle “Antifa” on social media this week. That context, and the administration’s degradation of its own enforcement capacity through several months of layoffs, has prompted some skepticism that it will be able to follow through, Marcus Owens, a former IRS official in charge of examining tax-exempt groups, told TPM.
“The staff isn’t there,” Owens said. “The number of audits the IRS is conducting are approaching zero in the tax-exempt organizations area.”
There’s no new law that Congress has created that would bring the concept of a domestic terrorist organization into existence, Owens said.
A former DOJ counterterrorism attorney told TPM last month that the government does not have to bring what would likely be extremely unviable material-support-for-terrorism cases against nonprofit groups to achieve its desired effect: suppressing speech.
“It says on its face that they’re going to go after funding mechanisms associated with progressive causes,” the person said of NSPM-7.
In his interview on Kirk’s podcast, Bessent cast the moves as necessary. The right, he suggested, is a victim, with political violence, supposedly from the left, hampering conservatives’ ability to speak and therefore requiring a federal response.
“We’re determined not only to honor [Kirk], but to keep our country safe, and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides,” he said. “As conservatives, we can’t be afraid to go out and speak. I know people are cancelling speeches, they’re having to bring down the size of the rallies.”
The Trump administration last month issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum that ordered federal law enforcement — including Treasury and the IRS — to investigate a wide range of advocacy groups that the administration says contribute to political violence. The order, called NSPM-7, mandates that federal law enforcement take a sweeping view of the types of ideas that may be held by a group that is worthy of investigation. They include “extremism on migration, race, and gender,” ” hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality,” and “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity.” Per NSPM-7, those arguably common ideas fall under the umbrella of the “’anti-fascist’ lie,” and are listed in the same category as more extreme ideas such as the ambition to “overthrow of the United States Government.”
The memo directs Joint Terrorism Task Forces, groups that combine local law enforcement with the FBI, to examine advocacy organizations that the memo views as orchestrating political violence. But it also sets Treasury a significant task: to “identify and disrupt financial networks that fund domestic terrorism and political violence.” For that, it tasks offices traditionally used to track money laundering, sanctions evasion and foreign terrorist financing, among other things, with tracing “illicit funding streams” under the memo.
Bessent’s remarks suggest that Treasury may be starting to implement NSPM-7’s vision of a crackdown on progressive advocacy. There are other signs, as well. On the same day as the memo was issued, a senior DOJ official reportedly directed several U.S. Attorney’s Offices to open investigations into the Open Society Foundations, a nonprofit funded by billionaire and right-wing bogeyman George Soros. Earlier this month, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) sent Bessent a list of pro-Palestine non-profits, urging him to speed up investigations into the groups. The letter cited NSPM-7 as an authority to do so. A White House official told Reuters last week that investigations might target several other groups, including ActBlue, which is a significant funding platform for the Democratic Party and progressive causes, Indivisible, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, and two progressive Jewish groups, IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Sarah Saadian, senior vice president for public policy and campaigns at the National Council of Nonprofits, told TPM that the memo is “already having a chilling effect on nonprofits.” Even investigations that lead nowhere, Saadian said, would force nonprofits to redirect resources away from advocacy and towards defending themselves.
“What we’re concerned about is that it might be used as a political weapon to target nonprofits and force them to shift resources away from their missions to defend their name,” Saadian said.
How different agencies will interpret and act on the memorandum remains unclear. Bessent made the remarks during the Charlie Kirk mourn-a-thon while speaking with Andrew Kolvet, the slain activist’s former spokesman. Kolvet himself boosted the idea that Treasury is the “tip of the spear” in an effort to dismantle “Antifa” on social media this week. That context, and the administration’s degradation of its own enforcement capacity through several months of layoffs, has prompted some skepticism that it will be able to follow through, Marcus Owens, a former IRS official in charge of examining tax-exempt groups, told TPM.
“The staff isn’t there,” Owens said. “The number of audits the IRS is conducting are approaching zero in the tax-exempt organizations area.”
There’s no new law that Congress has created that would bring the concept of a domestic terrorist organization into existence, Owens said.
A former DOJ counterterrorism attorney told TPM last month that the government does not have to bring what would likely be extremely unviable material-support-for-terrorism cases against nonprofit groups to achieve its desired effect: suppressing speech.
“It says on its face that they’re going to go after funding mechanisms associated with progressive causes,” the person said of NSPM-7.
In his interview on Kirk’s podcast, Bessent cast the moves as necessary. The right, he suggested, is a victim, with political violence, supposedly from the left, hampering conservatives’ ability to speak and therefore requiring a federal response.
“We’re determined not only to honor [Kirk], but to keep our country safe, and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides,” he said. “As conservatives, we can’t be afraid to go out and speak. I know people are cancelling speeches, they’re having to bring down the size of the rallies.”
Bessent’s remarks, along with other recent moves, suggest that we’re now moving in to the implementation phase of that idea.
The Trump administration last month issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum that ordered federal law enforcement — including Treasury and the IRS — to investigate a wide range of advocacy groups that the administration says contribute to political violence. The order, called NSPM-7, mandates that federal law enforcement take a sweeping view of the types of ideas that may be held by a group that is worthy of investigation. They include “extremism on migration, race, and gender,” ” hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality,” and “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity.” Per NSPM-7, those arguably common ideas fall under the umbrella of the “’anti-fascist’ lie,” and are listed in the same category as more extreme ideas such as the ambition to “overthrow of the United States Government.”
The memo directs Joint Terrorism Task Forces, groups that combine local law enforcement with the FBI, to examine advocacy organizations that the memo views as orchestrating political violence. But it also sets Treasury a significant task: to “identify and disrupt financial networks that fund domestic terrorism and political violence.” For that, it tasks offices traditionally used to track money laundering, sanctions evasion and foreign terrorist financing, among other things, with tracing “illicit funding streams” under the memo.
Bessent’s remarks suggest that Treasury may be starting to implement NSPM-7’s vision of a crackdown on progressive advocacy. There are other signs, as well. On the same day as the memo was issued, a senior DOJ official reportedly directed several U.S. Attorney’s Offices to open investigations into the Open Society Foundations, a nonprofit funded by billionaire and right-wing bogeyman George Soros. Earlier this month, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) sent Bessent a list of pro-Palestine non-profits, urging him to speed up investigations into the groups. The letter cited NSPM-7 as an authority to do so. A White House official told Reuters last week that investigations might target several other groups, including ActBlue, which is a significant funding platform for the Democratic Party and progressive causes, Indivisible, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, and two progressive Jewish groups, IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Sarah Saadian, senior vice president for public policy and campaigns at the National Council of Nonprofits, told TPM that the memo is “already having a chilling effect on nonprofits.” Even investigations that lead nowhere, Saadian said, would force nonprofits to redirect resources away from advocacy and towards defending themselves.
“What we’re concerned about is that it might be used as a political weapon to target nonprofits and force them to shift resources away from their missions to defend their name,” Saadian said.
How different agencies will interpret and act on the memorandum remains unclear. Bessent made the remarks during the Charlie Kirk mourn-a-thon while speaking with Andrew Kolvet, the slain activist’s former spokesman. Kolvet himself boosted the idea that Treasury is the “tip of the spear” in an effort to dismantle “Antifa” on social media this week. That context, and the administration’s degradation of its own enforcement capacity through several months of layoffs, has prompted some skepticism that it will be able to follow through, Marcus Owens, a former IRS official in charge of examining tax-exempt groups, told TPM.
“The staff isn’t there,” Owens said. “The number of audits the IRS is conducting are approaching zero in the tax-exempt organizations area.”
There’s no new law that Congress has created that would bring the concept of a domestic terrorist organization into existence, Owens said.
A former DOJ counterterrorism attorney told TPM last month that the government does not have to bring what would likely be extremely unviable material-support-for-terrorism cases against nonprofit groups to achieve its desired effect: suppressing speech.
“It says on its face that they’re going to go after funding mechanisms associated with progressive causes,” the person said of NSPM-7.
In his interview on Kirk’s podcast, Bessent cast the moves as necessary. The right, he suggested, is a victim, with political violence, supposedly from the left, hampering conservatives’ ability to speak and therefore requiring a federal response.
“We’re determined not only to honor [Kirk], but to keep our country safe, and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides,” he said. “As conservatives, we can’t be afraid to go out and speak. I know people are cancelling speeches, they’re having to bring down the size of the rallies.”
The White House is seeking to stage a broad effort to limit political speech and advocacy in the wake of Kirk’s killing. It capitalizes on ambitions that senior Trump officials began to vocalize years ago: to use the power of the federal government to disrupt nonprofit advocacy networks that many in the MAGA movement regard as underpinning the power of the left. Vice President JD Vance, for instance, told the Claremont Institute in 2021 that targeting nonprofits and universities should be a priority for the next Republican administration. Tax breaks, liability protections, and other benefits afforded to nonprofits should not be granted to groups that are “driving this country into the ground,” he said.
Bessent’s remarks, along with other recent moves, suggest that we’re now moving in to the implementation phase of that idea.
The Trump administration last month issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum that ordered federal law enforcement — including Treasury and the IRS — to investigate a wide range of advocacy groups that the administration says contribute to political violence. The order, called NSPM-7, mandates that federal law enforcement take a sweeping view of the types of ideas that may be held by a group that is worthy of investigation. They include “extremism on migration, race, and gender,” ” hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality,” and “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity.” Per NSPM-7, those arguably common ideas fall under the umbrella of the “’anti-fascist’ lie,” and are listed in the same category as more extreme ideas such as the ambition to “overthrow of the United States Government.”
The memo directs Joint Terrorism Task Forces, groups that combine local law enforcement with the FBI, to examine advocacy organizations that the memo views as orchestrating political violence. But it also sets Treasury a significant task: to “identify and disrupt financial networks that fund domestic terrorism and political violence.” For that, it tasks offices traditionally used to track money laundering, sanctions evasion and foreign terrorist financing, among other things, with tracing “illicit funding streams” under the memo.
Bessent’s remarks suggest that Treasury may be starting to implement NSPM-7’s vision of a crackdown on progressive advocacy. There are other signs, as well. On the same day as the memo was issued, a senior DOJ official reportedly directed several U.S. Attorney’s Offices to open investigations into the Open Society Foundations, a nonprofit funded by billionaire and right-wing bogeyman George Soros. Earlier this month, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) sent Bessent a list of pro-Palestine non-profits, urging him to speed up investigations into the groups. The letter cited NSPM-7 as an authority to do so. A White House official told Reuters last week that investigations might target several other groups, including ActBlue, which is a significant funding platform for the Democratic Party and progressive causes, Indivisible, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, and two progressive Jewish groups, IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Sarah Saadian, senior vice president for public policy and campaigns at the National Council of Nonprofits, told TPM that the memo is “already having a chilling effect on nonprofits.” Even investigations that lead nowhere, Saadian said, would force nonprofits to redirect resources away from advocacy and towards defending themselves.
“What we’re concerned about is that it might be used as a political weapon to target nonprofits and force them to shift resources away from their missions to defend their name,” Saadian said.
How different agencies will interpret and act on the memorandum remains unclear. Bessent made the remarks during the Charlie Kirk mourn-a-thon while speaking with Andrew Kolvet, the slain activist’s former spokesman. Kolvet himself boosted the idea that Treasury is the “tip of the spear” in an effort to dismantle “Antifa” on social media this week. That context, and the administration’s degradation of its own enforcement capacity through several months of layoffs, has prompted some skepticism that it will be able to follow through, Marcus Owens, a former IRS official in charge of examining tax-exempt groups, told TPM.
“The staff isn’t there,” Owens said. “The number of audits the IRS is conducting are approaching zero in the tax-exempt organizations area.”
There’s no new law that Congress has created that would bring the concept of a domestic terrorist organization into existence, Owens said.
A former DOJ counterterrorism attorney told TPM last month that the government does not have to bring what would likely be extremely unviable material-support-for-terrorism cases against nonprofit groups to achieve its desired effect: suppressing speech.
“It says on its face that they’re going to go after funding mechanisms associated with progressive causes,” the person said of NSPM-7.
In his interview on Kirk’s podcast, Bessent cast the moves as necessary. The right, he suggested, is a victim, with political violence, supposedly from the left, hampering conservatives’ ability to speak and therefore requiring a federal response.
“We’re determined not only to honor [Kirk], but to keep our country safe, and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides,” he said. “As conservatives, we can’t be afraid to go out and speak. I know people are cancelling speeches, they’re having to bring down the size of the rallies.”
“We are going to, as they always say, follow the money,” he said. “When you see these groups where all the signs match, they have hundreds of the same umbrellas that they’re using after they cause the mayhem, they have the same lasers that they’re using to blind our police force. How are they constructed? Because this takes a lot of money.”
The White House is seeking to stage a broad effort to limit political speech and advocacy in the wake of Kirk’s killing. It capitalizes on ambitions that senior Trump officials began to vocalize years ago: to use the power of the federal government to disrupt nonprofit advocacy networks that many in the MAGA movement regard as underpinning the power of the left. Vice President JD Vance, for instance, told the Claremont Institute in 2021 that targeting nonprofits and universities should be a priority for the next Republican administration. Tax breaks, liability protections, and other benefits afforded to nonprofits should not be granted to groups that are “driving this country into the ground,” he said.
Bessent’s remarks, along with other recent moves, suggest that we’re now moving in to the implementation phase of that idea.
The Trump administration last month issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum that ordered federal law enforcement — including Treasury and the IRS — to investigate a wide range of advocacy groups that the administration says contribute to political violence. The order, called NSPM-7, mandates that federal law enforcement take a sweeping view of the types of ideas that may be held by a group that is worthy of investigation. They include “extremism on migration, race, and gender,” ” hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality,” and “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity.” Per NSPM-7, those arguably common ideas fall under the umbrella of the “’anti-fascist’ lie,” and are listed in the same category as more extreme ideas such as the ambition to “overthrow of the United States Government.”
The memo directs Joint Terrorism Task Forces, groups that combine local law enforcement with the FBI, to examine advocacy organizations that the memo views as orchestrating political violence. But it also sets Treasury a significant task: to “identify and disrupt financial networks that fund domestic terrorism and political violence.” For that, it tasks offices traditionally used to track money laundering, sanctions evasion and foreign terrorist financing, among other things, with tracing “illicit funding streams” under the memo.
Bessent’s remarks suggest that Treasury may be starting to implement NSPM-7’s vision of a crackdown on progressive advocacy. There are other signs, as well. On the same day as the memo was issued, a senior DOJ official reportedly directed several U.S. Attorney’s Offices to open investigations into the Open Society Foundations, a nonprofit funded by billionaire and right-wing bogeyman George Soros. Earlier this month, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) sent Bessent a list of pro-Palestine non-profits, urging him to speed up investigations into the groups. The letter cited NSPM-7 as an authority to do so. A White House official told Reuters last week that investigations might target several other groups, including ActBlue, which is a significant funding platform for the Democratic Party and progressive causes, Indivisible, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, and two progressive Jewish groups, IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Sarah Saadian, senior vice president for public policy and campaigns at the National Council of Nonprofits, told TPM that the memo is “already having a chilling effect on nonprofits.” Even investigations that lead nowhere, Saadian said, would force nonprofits to redirect resources away from advocacy and towards defending themselves.
“What we’re concerned about is that it might be used as a political weapon to target nonprofits and force them to shift resources away from their missions to defend their name,” Saadian said.
How different agencies will interpret and act on the memorandum remains unclear. Bessent made the remarks during the Charlie Kirk mourn-a-thon while speaking with Andrew Kolvet, the slain activist’s former spokesman. Kolvet himself boosted the idea that Treasury is the “tip of the spear” in an effort to dismantle “Antifa” on social media this week. That context, and the administration’s degradation of its own enforcement capacity through several months of layoffs, has prompted some skepticism that it will be able to follow through, Marcus Owens, a former IRS official in charge of examining tax-exempt groups, told TPM.
“The staff isn’t there,” Owens said. “The number of audits the IRS is conducting are approaching zero in the tax-exempt organizations area.”
There’s no new law that Congress has created that would bring the concept of a domestic terrorist organization into existence, Owens said.
A former DOJ counterterrorism attorney told TPM last month that the government does not have to bring what would likely be extremely unviable material-support-for-terrorism cases against nonprofit groups to achieve its desired effect: suppressing speech.
“It says on its face that they’re going to go after funding mechanisms associated with progressive causes,” the person said of NSPM-7.
In his interview on Kirk’s podcast, Bessent cast the moves as necessary. The right, he suggested, is a victim, with political violence, supposedly from the left, hampering conservatives’ ability to speak and therefore requiring a federal response.
“We’re determined not only to honor [Kirk], but to keep our country safe, and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides,” he said. “As conservatives, we can’t be afraid to go out and speak. I know people are cancelling speeches, they’re having to bring down the size of the rallies.”
The remarks are the clearest statement yet from a senior Trump official that the administration intends to use the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination as a pretext to investigate and, potentially, charge progressive advocacy groups. In discussing groups that are supposedly responsible for political violence, Bessent did what other Trump administration officials and memos have done since Kirk’s death: sweep in anodyne forms of organized protest with the kind of orchestrated political violence that would merit scrutiny from law enforcement.
“We are going to, as they always say, follow the money,” he said. “When you see these groups where all the signs match, they have hundreds of the same umbrellas that they’re using after they cause the mayhem, they have the same lasers that they’re using to blind our police force. How are they constructed? Because this takes a lot of money.”
The White House is seeking to stage a broad effort to limit political speech and advocacy in the wake of Kirk’s killing. It capitalizes on ambitions that senior Trump officials began to vocalize years ago: to use the power of the federal government to disrupt nonprofit advocacy networks that many in the MAGA movement regard as underpinning the power of the left. Vice President JD Vance, for instance, told the Claremont Institute in 2021 that targeting nonprofits and universities should be a priority for the next Republican administration. Tax breaks, liability protections, and other benefits afforded to nonprofits should not be granted to groups that are “driving this country into the ground,” he said.
Bessent’s remarks, along with other recent moves, suggest that we’re now moving in to the implementation phase of that idea.
The Trump administration last month issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum that ordered federal law enforcement — including Treasury and the IRS — to investigate a wide range of advocacy groups that the administration says contribute to political violence. The order, called NSPM-7, mandates that federal law enforcement take a sweeping view of the types of ideas that may be held by a group that is worthy of investigation. They include “extremism on migration, race, and gender,” ” hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality,” and “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity.” Per NSPM-7, those arguably common ideas fall under the umbrella of the “’anti-fascist’ lie,” and are listed in the same category as more extreme ideas such as the ambition to “overthrow of the United States Government.”
The memo directs Joint Terrorism Task Forces, groups that combine local law enforcement with the FBI, to examine advocacy organizations that the memo views as orchestrating political violence. But it also sets Treasury a significant task: to “identify and disrupt financial networks that fund domestic terrorism and political violence.” For that, it tasks offices traditionally used to track money laundering, sanctions evasion and foreign terrorist financing, among other things, with tracing “illicit funding streams” under the memo.
Bessent’s remarks suggest that Treasury may be starting to implement NSPM-7’s vision of a crackdown on progressive advocacy. There are other signs, as well. On the same day as the memo was issued, a senior DOJ official reportedly directed several U.S. Attorney’s Offices to open investigations into the Open Society Foundations, a nonprofit funded by billionaire and right-wing bogeyman George Soros. Earlier this month, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) sent Bessent a list of pro-Palestine non-profits, urging him to speed up investigations into the groups. The letter cited NSPM-7 as an authority to do so. A White House official told Reuters last week that investigations might target several other groups, including ActBlue, which is a significant funding platform for the Democratic Party and progressive causes, Indivisible, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, and two progressive Jewish groups, IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Sarah Saadian, senior vice president for public policy and campaigns at the National Council of Nonprofits, told TPM that the memo is “already having a chilling effect on nonprofits.” Even investigations that lead nowhere, Saadian said, would force nonprofits to redirect resources away from advocacy and towards defending themselves.
“What we’re concerned about is that it might be used as a political weapon to target nonprofits and force them to shift resources away from their missions to defend their name,” Saadian said.
How different agencies will interpret and act on the memorandum remains unclear. Bessent made the remarks during the Charlie Kirk mourn-a-thon while speaking with Andrew Kolvet, the slain activist’s former spokesman. Kolvet himself boosted the idea that Treasury is the “tip of the spear” in an effort to dismantle “Antifa” on social media this week. That context, and the administration’s degradation of its own enforcement capacity through several months of layoffs, has prompted some skepticism that it will be able to follow through, Marcus Owens, a former IRS official in charge of examining tax-exempt groups, told TPM.
“The staff isn’t there,” Owens said. “The number of audits the IRS is conducting are approaching zero in the tax-exempt organizations area.”
There’s no new law that Congress has created that would bring the concept of a domestic terrorist organization into existence, Owens said.
A former DOJ counterterrorism attorney told TPM last month that the government does not have to bring what would likely be extremely unviable material-support-for-terrorism cases against nonprofit groups to achieve its desired effect: suppressing speech.
“It says on its face that they’re going to go after funding mechanisms associated with progressive causes,” the person said of NSPM-7.
In his interview on Kirk’s podcast, Bessent cast the moves as necessary. The right, he suggested, is a victim, with political violence, supposedly from the left, hampering conservatives’ ability to speak and therefore requiring a federal response.
“We’re determined not only to honor [Kirk], but to keep our country safe, and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides,” he said. “As conservatives, we can’t be afraid to go out and speak. I know people are cancelling speeches, they’re having to bring down the size of the rallies.”
“We don’t know how much of the support is coming in from overseas, how much is being supported by U.S. nonprofits” and 501(c)3s that give money to 501(c)4s, he said. “This is mission-critical for us now.”
The remarks are the clearest statement yet from a senior Trump official that the administration intends to use the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination as a pretext to investigate and, potentially, charge progressive advocacy groups. In discussing groups that are supposedly responsible for political violence, Bessent did what other Trump administration officials and memos have done since Kirk’s death: sweep in anodyne forms of organized protest with the kind of orchestrated political violence that would merit scrutiny from law enforcement.
“We are going to, as they always say, follow the money,” he said. “When you see these groups where all the signs match, they have hundreds of the same umbrellas that they’re using after they cause the mayhem, they have the same lasers that they’re using to blind our police force. How are they constructed? Because this takes a lot of money.”
The White House is seeking to stage a broad effort to limit political speech and advocacy in the wake of Kirk’s killing. It capitalizes on ambitions that senior Trump officials began to vocalize years ago: to use the power of the federal government to disrupt nonprofit advocacy networks that many in the MAGA movement regard as underpinning the power of the left. Vice President JD Vance, for instance, told the Claremont Institute in 2021 that targeting nonprofits and universities should be a priority for the next Republican administration. Tax breaks, liability protections, and other benefits afforded to nonprofits should not be granted to groups that are “driving this country into the ground,” he said.
Bessent’s remarks, along with other recent moves, suggest that we’re now moving in to the implementation phase of that idea.
The Trump administration last month issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum that ordered federal law enforcement — including Treasury and the IRS — to investigate a wide range of advocacy groups that the administration says contribute to political violence. The order, called NSPM-7, mandates that federal law enforcement take a sweeping view of the types of ideas that may be held by a group that is worthy of investigation. They include “extremism on migration, race, and gender,” ” hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality,” and “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity.” Per NSPM-7, those arguably common ideas fall under the umbrella of the “’anti-fascist’ lie,” and are listed in the same category as more extreme ideas such as the ambition to “overthrow of the United States Government.”
The memo directs Joint Terrorism Task Forces, groups that combine local law enforcement with the FBI, to examine advocacy organizations that the memo views as orchestrating political violence. But it also sets Treasury a significant task: to “identify and disrupt financial networks that fund domestic terrorism and political violence.” For that, it tasks offices traditionally used to track money laundering, sanctions evasion and foreign terrorist financing, among other things, with tracing “illicit funding streams” under the memo.
Bessent’s remarks suggest that Treasury may be starting to implement NSPM-7’s vision of a crackdown on progressive advocacy. There are other signs, as well. On the same day as the memo was issued, a senior DOJ official reportedly directed several U.S. Attorney’s Offices to open investigations into the Open Society Foundations, a nonprofit funded by billionaire and right-wing bogeyman George Soros. Earlier this month, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) sent Bessent a list of pro-Palestine non-profits, urging him to speed up investigations into the groups. The letter cited NSPM-7 as an authority to do so. A White House official told Reuters last week that investigations might target several other groups, including ActBlue, which is a significant funding platform for the Democratic Party and progressive causes, Indivisible, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, and two progressive Jewish groups, IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Sarah Saadian, senior vice president for public policy and campaigns at the National Council of Nonprofits, told TPM that the memo is “already having a chilling effect on nonprofits.” Even investigations that lead nowhere, Saadian said, would force nonprofits to redirect resources away from advocacy and towards defending themselves.
“What we’re concerned about is that it might be used as a political weapon to target nonprofits and force them to shift resources away from their missions to defend their name,” Saadian said.
How different agencies will interpret and act on the memorandum remains unclear. Bessent made the remarks during the Charlie Kirk mourn-a-thon while speaking with Andrew Kolvet, the slain activist’s former spokesman. Kolvet himself boosted the idea that Treasury is the “tip of the spear” in an effort to dismantle “Antifa” on social media this week. That context, and the administration’s degradation of its own enforcement capacity through several months of layoffs, has prompted some skepticism that it will be able to follow through, Marcus Owens, a former IRS official in charge of examining tax-exempt groups, told TPM.
“The staff isn’t there,” Owens said. “The number of audits the IRS is conducting are approaching zero in the tax-exempt organizations area.”
There’s no new law that Congress has created that would bring the concept of a domestic terrorist organization into existence, Owens said.
A former DOJ counterterrorism attorney told TPM last month that the government does not have to bring what would likely be extremely unviable material-support-for-terrorism cases against nonprofit groups to achieve its desired effect: suppressing speech.
“It says on its face that they’re going to go after funding mechanisms associated with progressive causes,” the person said of NSPM-7.
In his interview on Kirk’s podcast, Bessent cast the moves as necessary. The right, he suggested, is a victim, with political violence, supposedly from the left, hampering conservatives’ ability to speak and therefore requiring a federal response.
“We’re determined not only to honor [Kirk], but to keep our country safe, and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides,” he said. “As conservatives, we can’t be afraid to go out and speak. I know people are cancelling speeches, they’re having to bring down the size of the rallies.”
Bessent made the remarks on an episode of Kirk’s podcast, held in honor of what would have been the activist’s 32nd birthday. The Treasury Secretary added that the Department has “started to compile lists, put together networks.”
“We don’t know how much of the support is coming in from overseas, how much is being supported by U.S. nonprofits” and 501(c)3s that give money to 501(c)4s, he said. “This is mission-critical for us now.”
The remarks are the clearest statement yet from a senior Trump official that the administration intends to use the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination as a pretext to investigate and, potentially, charge progressive advocacy groups. In discussing groups that are supposedly responsible for political violence, Bessent did what other Trump administration officials and memos have done since Kirk’s death: sweep in anodyne forms of organized protest with the kind of orchestrated political violence that would merit scrutiny from law enforcement.
“We are going to, as they always say, follow the money,” he said. “When you see these groups where all the signs match, they have hundreds of the same umbrellas that they’re using after they cause the mayhem, they have the same lasers that they’re using to blind our police force. How are they constructed? Because this takes a lot of money.”
The White House is seeking to stage a broad effort to limit political speech and advocacy in the wake of Kirk’s killing. It capitalizes on ambitions that senior Trump officials began to vocalize years ago: to use the power of the federal government to disrupt nonprofit advocacy networks that many in the MAGA movement regard as underpinning the power of the left. Vice President JD Vance, for instance, told the Claremont Institute in 2021 that targeting nonprofits and universities should be a priority for the next Republican administration. Tax breaks, liability protections, and other benefits afforded to nonprofits should not be granted to groups that are “driving this country into the ground,” he said.
Bessent’s remarks, along with other recent moves, suggest that we’re now moving in to the implementation phase of that idea.
The Trump administration last month issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum that ordered federal law enforcement — including Treasury and the IRS — to investigate a wide range of advocacy groups that the administration says contribute to political violence. The order, called NSPM-7, mandates that federal law enforcement take a sweeping view of the types of ideas that may be held by a group that is worthy of investigation. They include “extremism on migration, race, and gender,” ” hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality,” and “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity.” Per NSPM-7, those arguably common ideas fall under the umbrella of the “’anti-fascist’ lie,” and are listed in the same category as more extreme ideas such as the ambition to “overthrow of the United States Government.”
The memo directs Joint Terrorism Task Forces, groups that combine local law enforcement with the FBI, to examine advocacy organizations that the memo views as orchestrating political violence. But it also sets Treasury a significant task: to “identify and disrupt financial networks that fund domestic terrorism and political violence.” For that, it tasks offices traditionally used to track money laundering, sanctions evasion and foreign terrorist financing, among other things, with tracing “illicit funding streams” under the memo.
Bessent’s remarks suggest that Treasury may be starting to implement NSPM-7’s vision of a crackdown on progressive advocacy. There are other signs, as well. On the same day as the memo was issued, a senior DOJ official reportedly directed several U.S. Attorney’s Offices to open investigations into the Open Society Foundations, a nonprofit funded by billionaire and right-wing bogeyman George Soros. Earlier this month, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) sent Bessent a list of pro-Palestine non-profits, urging him to speed up investigations into the groups. The letter cited NSPM-7 as an authority to do so. A White House official told Reuters last week that investigations might target several other groups, including ActBlue, which is a significant funding platform for the Democratic Party and progressive causes, Indivisible, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, and two progressive Jewish groups, IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Sarah Saadian, senior vice president for public policy and campaigns at the National Council of Nonprofits, told TPM that the memo is “already having a chilling effect on nonprofits.” Even investigations that lead nowhere, Saadian said, would force nonprofits to redirect resources away from advocacy and towards defending themselves.
“What we’re concerned about is that it might be used as a political weapon to target nonprofits and force them to shift resources away from their missions to defend their name,” Saadian said.
How different agencies will interpret and act on the memorandum remains unclear. Bessent made the remarks during the Charlie Kirk mourn-a-thon while speaking with Andrew Kolvet, the slain activist’s former spokesman. Kolvet himself boosted the idea that Treasury is the “tip of the spear” in an effort to dismantle “Antifa” on social media this week. That context, and the administration’s degradation of its own enforcement capacity through several months of layoffs, has prompted some skepticism that it will be able to follow through, Marcus Owens, a former IRS official in charge of examining tax-exempt groups, told TPM.
“The staff isn’t there,” Owens said. “The number of audits the IRS is conducting are approaching zero in the tax-exempt organizations area.”
There’s no new law that Congress has created that would bring the concept of a domestic terrorist organization into existence, Owens said.
A former DOJ counterterrorism attorney told TPM last month that the government does not have to bring what would likely be extremely unviable material-support-for-terrorism cases against nonprofit groups to achieve its desired effect: suppressing speech.
“It says on its face that they’re going to go after funding mechanisms associated with progressive causes,” the person said of NSPM-7.
In his interview on Kirk’s podcast, Bessent cast the moves as necessary. The right, he suggested, is a victim, with political violence, supposedly from the left, hampering conservatives’ ability to speak and therefore requiring a federal response.
“We’re determined not only to honor [Kirk], but to keep our country safe, and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides,” he said. “As conservatives, we can’t be afraid to go out and speak. I know people are cancelling speeches, they’re having to bring down the size of the rallies.”
“Charlie’s death is like a domestic 9/11,” Bessent said. “Just as after 9/11, and Osama bin Laden, the ultimate culprit, was captured, we are operationalizing the Treasury, and we are going to track down who is responsible for this.”
Bessent made the remarks on an episode of Kirk’s podcast, held in honor of what would have been the activist’s 32nd birthday. The Treasury Secretary added that the Department has “started to compile lists, put together networks.”
“We don’t know how much of the support is coming in from overseas, how much is being supported by U.S. nonprofits” and 501(c)3s that give money to 501(c)4s, he said. “This is mission-critical for us now.”
The remarks are the clearest statement yet from a senior Trump official that the administration intends to use the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination as a pretext to investigate and, potentially, charge progressive advocacy groups. In discussing groups that are supposedly responsible for political violence, Bessent did what other Trump administration officials and memos have done since Kirk’s death: sweep in anodyne forms of organized protest with the kind of orchestrated political violence that would merit scrutiny from law enforcement.
“We are going to, as they always say, follow the money,” he said. “When you see these groups where all the signs match, they have hundreds of the same umbrellas that they’re using after they cause the mayhem, they have the same lasers that they’re using to blind our police force. How are they constructed? Because this takes a lot of money.”
The White House is seeking to stage a broad effort to limit political speech and advocacy in the wake of Kirk’s killing. It capitalizes on ambitions that senior Trump officials began to vocalize years ago: to use the power of the federal government to disrupt nonprofit advocacy networks that many in the MAGA movement regard as underpinning the power of the left. Vice President JD Vance, for instance, told the Claremont Institute in 2021 that targeting nonprofits and universities should be a priority for the next Republican administration. Tax breaks, liability protections, and other benefits afforded to nonprofits should not be granted to groups that are “driving this country into the ground,” he said.
Bessent’s remarks, along with other recent moves, suggest that we’re now moving in to the implementation phase of that idea.
The Trump administration last month issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum that ordered federal law enforcement — including Treasury and the IRS — to investigate a wide range of advocacy groups that the administration says contribute to political violence. The order, called NSPM-7, mandates that federal law enforcement take a sweeping view of the types of ideas that may be held by a group that is worthy of investigation. They include “extremism on migration, race, and gender,” ” hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality,” and “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity.” Per NSPM-7, those arguably common ideas fall under the umbrella of the “’anti-fascist’ lie,” and are listed in the same category as more extreme ideas such as the ambition to “overthrow of the United States Government.”
The memo directs Joint Terrorism Task Forces, groups that combine local law enforcement with the FBI, to examine advocacy organizations that the memo views as orchestrating political violence. But it also sets Treasury a significant task: to “identify and disrupt financial networks that fund domestic terrorism and political violence.” For that, it tasks offices traditionally used to track money laundering, sanctions evasion and foreign terrorist financing, among other things, with tracing “illicit funding streams” under the memo.
Bessent’s remarks suggest that Treasury may be starting to implement NSPM-7’s vision of a crackdown on progressive advocacy. There are other signs, as well. On the same day as the memo was issued, a senior DOJ official reportedly directed several U.S. Attorney’s Offices to open investigations into the Open Society Foundations, a nonprofit funded by billionaire and right-wing bogeyman George Soros. Earlier this month, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) sent Bessent a list of pro-Palestine non-profits, urging him to speed up investigations into the groups. The letter cited NSPM-7 as an authority to do so. A White House official told Reuters last week that investigations might target several other groups, including ActBlue, which is a significant funding platform for the Democratic Party and progressive causes, Indivisible, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, and two progressive Jewish groups, IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Sarah Saadian, senior vice president for public policy and campaigns at the National Council of Nonprofits, told TPM that the memo is “already having a chilling effect on nonprofits.” Even investigations that lead nowhere, Saadian said, would force nonprofits to redirect resources away from advocacy and towards defending themselves.
“What we’re concerned about is that it might be used as a political weapon to target nonprofits and force them to shift resources away from their missions to defend their name,” Saadian said.
How different agencies will interpret and act on the memorandum remains unclear. Bessent made the remarks during the Charlie Kirk mourn-a-thon while speaking with Andrew Kolvet, the slain activist’s former spokesman. Kolvet himself boosted the idea that Treasury is the “tip of the spear” in an effort to dismantle “Antifa” on social media this week. That context, and the administration’s degradation of its own enforcement capacity through several months of layoffs, has prompted some skepticism that it will be able to follow through, Marcus Owens, a former IRS official in charge of examining tax-exempt groups, told TPM.
“The staff isn’t there,” Owens said. “The number of audits the IRS is conducting are approaching zero in the tax-exempt organizations area.”
There’s no new law that Congress has created that would bring the concept of a domestic terrorist organization into existence, Owens said.
A former DOJ counterterrorism attorney told TPM last month that the government does not have to bring what would likely be extremely unviable material-support-for-terrorism cases against nonprofit groups to achieve its desired effect: suppressing speech.
“It says on its face that they’re going to go after funding mechanisms associated with progressive causes,” the person said of NSPM-7.
In his interview on Kirk’s podcast, Bessent cast the moves as necessary. The right, he suggested, is a victim, with political violence, supposedly from the left, hampering conservatives’ ability to speak and therefore requiring a federal response.
“We’re determined not only to honor [Kirk], but to keep our country safe, and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides,” he said. “As conservatives, we can’t be afraid to go out and speak. I know people are cancelling speeches, they’re having to bring down the size of the rallies.”
“Charlie’s death is like a domestic 9/11,” Bessent said. “Just as after 9/11, and Osama bin Laden, the ultimate culprit, was captured, we are operationalizing the Treasury, and we are going to track down who is responsible for this.”
Bessent made the remarks on an episode of Kirk’s podcast, held in honor of what would have been the activist’s 32nd birthday. The Treasury Secretary added that the Department has “started to compile lists, put together networks.”
“We don’t know how much of the support is coming in from overseas, how much is being supported by U.S. nonprofits” and 501(c)3s that give money to 501(c)4s, he said. “This is mission-critical for us now.”
The remarks are the clearest statement yet from a senior Trump official that the administration intends to use the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination as a pretext to investigate and, potentially, charge progressive advocacy groups. In discussing groups that are supposedly responsible for political violence, Bessent did what other Trump administration officials and memos have done since Kirk’s death: sweep in anodyne forms of organized protest with the kind of orchestrated political violence that would merit scrutiny from law enforcement.
“We are going to, as they always say, follow the money,” he said. “When you see these groups where all the signs match, they have hundreds of the same umbrellas that they’re using after they cause the mayhem, they have the same lasers that they’re using to blind our police force. How are they constructed? Because this takes a lot of money.”
The White House is seeking to stage a broad effort to limit political speech and advocacy in the wake of Kirk’s killing. It capitalizes on ambitions that senior Trump officials began to vocalize years ago: to use the power of the federal government to disrupt nonprofit advocacy networks that many in the MAGA movement regard as underpinning the power of the left. Vice President JD Vance, for instance, told the Claremont Institute in 2021 that targeting nonprofits and universities should be a priority for the next Republican administration. Tax breaks, liability protections, and other benefits afforded to nonprofits should not be granted to groups that are “driving this country into the ground,” he said.
Bessent’s remarks, along with other recent moves, suggest that we’re now moving in to the implementation phase of that idea.
The Trump administration last month issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum that ordered federal law enforcement — including Treasury and the IRS — to investigate a wide range of advocacy groups that the administration says contribute to political violence. The order, called NSPM-7, mandates that federal law enforcement take a sweeping view of the types of ideas that may be held by a group that is worthy of investigation. They include “extremism on migration, race, and gender,” ” hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality,” and “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity.” Per NSPM-7, those arguably common ideas fall under the umbrella of the “’anti-fascist’ lie,” and are listed in the same category as more extreme ideas such as the ambition to “overthrow of the United States Government.”
The memo directs Joint Terrorism Task Forces, groups that combine local law enforcement with the FBI, to examine advocacy organizations that the memo views as orchestrating political violence. But it also sets Treasury a significant task: to “identify and disrupt financial networks that fund domestic terrorism and political violence.” For that, it tasks offices traditionally used to track money laundering, sanctions evasion and foreign terrorist financing, among other things, with tracing “illicit funding streams” under the memo.
Bessent’s remarks suggest that Treasury may be starting to implement NSPM-7’s vision of a crackdown on progressive advocacy. There are other signs, as well. On the same day as the memo was issued, a senior DOJ official reportedly directed several U.S. Attorney’s Offices to open investigations into the Open Society Foundations, a nonprofit funded by billionaire and right-wing bogeyman George Soros. Earlier this month, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) sent Bessent a list of pro-Palestine non-profits, urging him to speed up investigations into the groups. The letter cited NSPM-7 as an authority to do so. A White House official told Reuters last week that investigations might target several other groups, including ActBlue, which is a significant funding platform for the Democratic Party and progressive causes, Indivisible, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, and two progressive Jewish groups, IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Sarah Saadian, senior vice president for public policy and campaigns at the National Council of Nonprofits, told TPM that the memo is “already having a chilling effect on nonprofits.” Even investigations that lead nowhere, Saadian said, would force nonprofits to redirect resources away from advocacy and towards defending themselves.
“What we’re concerned about is that it might be used as a political weapon to target nonprofits and force them to shift resources away from their missions to defend their name,” Saadian said.
How different agencies will interpret and act on the memorandum remains unclear. Bessent made the remarks during the Charlie Kirk mourn-a-thon while speaking with Andrew Kolvet, the slain activist’s former spokesman. Kolvet himself boosted the idea that Treasury is the “tip of the spear” in an effort to dismantle “Antifa” on social media this week. That context, and the administration’s degradation of its own enforcement capacity through several months of layoffs, has prompted some skepticism that it will be able to follow through, Marcus Owens, a former IRS official in charge of examining tax-exempt groups, told TPM.
“The staff isn’t there,” Owens said. “The number of audits the IRS is conducting are approaching zero in the tax-exempt organizations area.”
There’s no new law that Congress has created that would bring the concept of a domestic terrorist organization into existence, Owens said.
A former DOJ counterterrorism attorney told TPM last month that the government does not have to bring what would likely be extremely unviable material-support-for-terrorism cases against nonprofit groups to achieve its desired effect: suppressing speech.
“It says on its face that they’re going to go after funding mechanisms associated with progressive causes,” the person said of NSPM-7.
In his interview on Kirk’s podcast, Bessent cast the moves as necessary. The right, he suggested, is a victim, with political violence, supposedly from the left, hampering conservatives’ ability to speak and therefore requiring a federal response.
“We’re determined not only to honor [Kirk], but to keep our country safe, and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides,” he said. “As conservatives, we can’t be afraid to go out and speak. I know people are cancelling speeches, they’re having to bring down the size of the rallies.”
