Trump administration to unleash ‘righteous anger’ on NGOs, left-wing activists

Washington: The Trump administration is preparing a major crackdown against non-government organisations, left-wing activists and what it calls “terrorist networks” advocating violence against conservatives in the wake of the assassination of key Donald Trump ally Charlie Kirk.

It comes as FBI director Kash Patel revealed investigators had matched DNA traces from a towel wrapped around the gun allegedly used in the crime to the suspect in custody, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson – as well as DNA traces from a screwdriver found at the crime scene.

Vice President JD Vance, a close friend of Kirk’s, hosted the slain activist’s radio show on Monday, local time, and invited a stream of White House figures to pay tribute to the 31-year-old, who was fatally shot at a university campus in Utah last week.

In one conversation, Vance asked Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller to outline the actions the two of them had been working on since the assassination to combat political violence.

“You have crazies on the far-left who are saying, ‘Stephen Miller and JD Vance, they’re going to go after constitutionally protected speech’,” Vance said. “No, no, no. We’re going to go after the NGO network that foments, facilitates and engages in violence. That’s not OK. Violence is not OK in our system.”

Miller, a major architect of the administration’s crackdowns on immigration and crime, said the White House would channel its “righteous anger” over the shooting into a targeted campaign against left-wing extremism.

“Unfocused anger, or blind rage, is not a productive emotion,” Miller said. “But focused anger, righteous anger, directed for a just cause is one of the most important agents of change in human history.”

Vance interjected: “Charlie showed that. Amen.”

Miller continued: “We are going to channel all the anger that we have over the organised campaign that led to this assassination to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks.

“The organised doxxing campaigns, the organised riots, the organised street violence, the organised campaigns of dehumanisation, vilification, posting people’s addresses, combining that with messaging designed to trigger and incite violence, and the actual organised cells that carry out and facilitate the violence.

“It is a vast domestic terror movement. And with God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people. It will happen, and we will do it in Charlie’s name.”

Vance also called on the public to hold to account those who appeared to celebrate Kirk’s death, saying they should be dobbed in to their employers, while other Trump officials suggested people should be sacked or suspended for posting “inappropriate” comments on social media.

US politics has been riven by Kirk’s assassination, with a debate under way about escalating political violence – in particular, the role of social media in fomenting hatred and anger.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly said it is only left-wing radicals who pose a problem, arguing that radicals on the right are motivated by justified causes such as reducing crime.

The seismic event has galvanised hard-right activists and commentators to demand drastic measures against their political opponents.

On his War Room podcast on Monday (Tuesday AEST), former Trump adviser, MAGA personality and influencer Steve Bannon said the left-wing movement Antifa must be designated as a domestic terrorist organisation – potentially alongside the transgender movement.

“The trans part of this is a subset of that. That is also a conspiracy, a terrorist organisation,” he said. “Needs to be investigated.”

Bannon rejected the calls for unity made by Utah’s Republican Governor Spencer Cox, whose passionate pleas to find an off-ramp to spiralling anger and violence commanded headlines around the country.

“It’s time now to make a stand,” Bannon said. “No, Cox, we’re not looking for unity – we’re looking for victory. No unity. We have nothing to unite around in that regard. We’re not going to unite with that. You might. You can get on there and do your pronouns and all that. It’s a free country, do it. But we’re not going to do it.”

One conservative blogger, Matt Forney, said Kirk’s assassination was “the American Reichstag fire” – the 1933 arson attack on the German parliament which the Nazis used as a pretext to suspend civil liberties and crush their political opponents.

“Every Democratic politician must be arrested and the party banned under RICO,” Forney wrote on X, referring to racketeering laws. “It is time for a complete crackdown on the left.”

Miller has already endorsed the use of organised crime, conspiracy or insurrection laws to target “radical left” activists for fomenting riots, doxxing people or committing violent acts.

The accused Robinson held a “leftist ideology” and spent a lot of time online, Cox told US media outlets over the weekend, and lived with a romantic partner who was transitioning from male to female. While the roommate was co-operating with authorities, Robinson was not.

The 22-year-old is set to be charged on Tuesday, US time. Patel, meanwhile, outlined a strong case to be presented by police. He told Fox News that DNA collected from a towel wrapped around the gun, and from a screwdriver found on the rooftop where the shot was allegedly fired, matched the suspect in custody.

Patel also said investigators had obtained evidence of a note, allegedly handwritten by Robinson ahead of the shooting, in which he said he was going to kill Kirk.

“Even though it has been destroyed, we have found forensic evidence of the note, and we have confirmed what that note said because of our aggressive interview posture at the FBI,” Patel said.

The Washington Post, meanwhile, reported that Robinson appeared to have confessed to friends in an online chat on Thursday, shortly before he turned himself in, citing two people familiar with the chat and screenshots seen by the newspaper.

“Hey guys, I have bad news for you all,” said a message to a small private group of friends from an account belonging to the suspect on the online platform Discord. “it was me at UVU [Utah Valley University] yesterday. im sorry for all of this.”

“im surrendering through a sheriff friend in a few moments,” the message, posted at 7.57pm Utah time, said. “Thanks for all the good times and laughs, you’ve all been so amazing, thank you all for everything.”

Robinson was taken into custody about two hours later.

The New York Times reported on a conversation in a different Discord chat group earlier the same day in which Robinson joked that a “doppelgänger” was trying to get him in trouble. That followed the release of images of a suspect who resembled Robinson.

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