For a year, White House counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka has promoted a national strategy he is drafting, saying he is putting his “life’s work” into a “massive” blueprint for overhauling America’s approach to combating the threat of terrorism.
The final version, released May 6 after months of delays, is a 16-page, typo-riddled document that ranks threats based on politics rather than intelligence ratings, according to several current and former counterterrorism officials and threat analysts.
Islamic extremist groups, long a major concern, now rank second only to Latin American drug cartels. The violent far right, which the FBI has repeatedly called the biggest domestic threat, is not worth mentioning. Meanwhile, the militant left, a minority of extremist violence in the United States, is portrayed as a threat on par with global terrorist networks such as al-Qaeda.
“A new type of domestic terrorism has emerged, perpetrated by violent extremists who embrace an ideology that is antithetical to freedom and the American way of life,” the document said.
Mr. Gorka’s strategy, the subject of a recent ProPublica report, lavishes praise on President Donald Trump’s national security agenda but provides few details about plans to tackle Latin American “narco-terrorists,” Islamic extremist groups, and violent left-wing antifascists and anarchists, the administration’s top priorities.
Gorka, who coordinates the White House’s counterterrorism policy on the National Security Council, called the document a “return to common sense” in the wake of President Joe Biden’s 2021 strategy centered primarily on far-right domestic threats. The new strategy mentions Biden seven times.
“What this tells us is that this administration is not paying attention to the data, to what its allies are seeing globally, to where the greatest threats of violence are coming from and how to prevent them,” said Cynthia Miller Idris, founding director of the Institute for Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation at American University.
Republican leaders have often portrayed Biden’s focus on the violent far right as Democrats cracking down on conservative organizations. This idea spurred President Trump’s full pardons for more than 1,500 defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, including those who attacked police.
Gorka did not respond to requests for comment. Asked about criticism of the plan, the White House pointed to Gorka’s many public statements promoting the plan. White House press secretary Olivia Wales added in an email: “President Trump is crushing terrorist threats to America and will never absolve cartels, jihadists, or the governments that support them from conspiring against our people.”
Here are five notable aspects of the plan, compiled from interviews with counterterrorism officials and critiques published by researchers.
1. It’s about Trump, not terrorism.
The counterterrorism strategy begins with a preface signed by President Trump, who sets the tone by claiming credit for ending “four years of weakness, failure, capitulation, and humiliation under the previous administration.”
Analysts say the rest of the strategy is more like a valentine than a low-key national security communiqué. The report states that under President Trump’s leadership, “America is once again the world’s most powerful nation, with the largest economy in history, the most advanced technology, and the bravest and most skilled combatants the world has ever seen.”
The strategy’s top threat categories align with the president’s pet issues, such as demonizing Democrats and left-wing opposition. The language also reflects debunked right-wing conspiracy theories shared by the president about a stolen election, the alleged genocide of Christians, and the existential threat to Western civilization from what Strategy calls an “alien culture.” One section calls Christians “the most persecuted people on earth.”
Juliet Kayyem, a veteran terrorism analyst and former Obama administration official, lamented about X: “This used to be a serious document written by serious people across Democratic and Republican presidents. Now it reads like partisan dogma.”
2. Data counter priority.
Analysts say the most obvious hole is the omission of violent far-right movements. Federal authorities have long said neo-Nazi and anti-government militias pose the most active and deadly threat in the country, but recently authorities have noted an increase in attacks with mixed left-wing motives.
For example, on September 10, the same day that conservative youth leader Charlie Kirk was assassinated at an outdoor event in Utah, a 16-year-old gunman steeped in white supremacy and mass shooting fan online forums opened fire at a Colorado high school, seriously injuring two students, and then killed himself.
This strategy targets only the kind of violent extremism that the White House considers the Kirk shooter, who has been labeled a violent left-wing “extremist espousing an extreme transgender ideology.” Terrorism analysts say the motive for the attack appears to be less clear. The suspect, who has not yet been brought to trial, reportedly comes from a Republican family but has turned politically and spoke out against the “hatred” that Kirk allegedly spread.
Just last week, a lawsuit related to last year’s Florida State University shooting revealed that the shooter used ChatGPT to explore “interest in Hitler, Nazism, and fascism” and other far-right topics.
In a social media post, Jacob Ware, a terrorism researcher who has written extensively on the radical right, called the incident “a friendly reminder that the Trump administration’s new U.S. counterterrorism strategy makes no mention of far-right violent extremism.”
Gorkha’s counterterrorism strategy begins with a preface signed by President Donald Trump, who claims credit for ending “four years of weakness, failure, capitulation, and humiliation.” Justin Lane/Getty Images
3. Policy undermines strategy.
Analysts say some of the White House’s counterterrorism goals contradict the president’s own actions.
First, the pledge to step up efforts to thwart the plot does not take into account the reduced capacity of federal agencies since President Trump cut national security personnel last year and redirected counterterrorism resources to a mass deportation campaign.
Terrorism analyst Colin Clark, executive director of the security-focused Soufan Center and a Gorkha commentator, summed up the document as “highly partisan and almost incoherent.”
The newspaper touted the U.S. military operation’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as a milestone in capturing a “narco-terrorist outlaw.” But weeks before Maduro’s attack, President Trump pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was serving a 45-year sentence for trafficking 400 tons of cocaine into the United States.
Another US goal is to aggressively counter anti-American propaganda by Islamic extremist groups. The regime claims that Islamic extremist groups have been driven from their strongholds in the Middle East and are “exploiting ungoverned spaces” across Africa. According to the strategy, regions where “the resurgent threat of terrorism is a reality” include West Africa, the Sahel region, Sudan and Somalia.
But efforts to counter anti-American messages have been undermined by an increase in U.S. airstrikes that have caused civilian casualties, particularly in Somalia and Yemen, and by the shutdown of humanitarian programs across the continent, conflict monitors say. U.S. aid has become a lifeline for communities that could be exploited by extremist recruiters in desperate situations.
The strategy calls for a “light military footprint” in Africa, with the hope that African leaders will take on a greater role in counterterrorism efforts. But President Trump’s suspension of foreign aid has hampered regional counterterrorism plans. Conflict monitors are currently watching with alarm as Islamic extremists seize territory and launch attacks in Mali, urging the regime to pay increased attention to the rebel Sahel region and other hotspots.
“Terrorists are attempting to re-establish a new caliphate sanctuary that could serve as a breeding ground for attacks on the U.S. homeland and interests abroad,” Alex Prisas, a security analyst and former Obama-era Pentagon official, wrote after visiting U.S. Africa Command this month.
“The results are a warning to Washington: If the United States and its partners take a step back, jihadist groups and hostile forces will fill the space,” Plitsas wrote.
The strategy also downplays the “failed ‘forever wars’ policy” at a time when Trump’s supporters are struggling with his decision to launch a U.S.-Israel war on terrorist state sponsor Iran.
In a call with reporters after announcing the plan, Gorka became defensive when asked why the Iran operation was not a “forever war” that could endanger Americans. He called his critics “testicular failures.”
White House press secretary Anna Kelly said, “Unlike previous ‘Forever Wars’ with vague goals and ever-expanding timelines, President Trump led the most transparent administration in history, keeping the American people informed of the scope and clear objectives of Operation Epic Fury.”
4. Success is exaggerated.
President Trump’s preface begins by praising counterterrorism accomplishments that analysts say are overstated or lacking in nuance.
One example is Trump’s claim that within 43 days of his return to office, the US had arrested the “terrorist mastermind” of the deadly monastery gate attack in Kabul. In 2021, more than 150 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members were killed when a suicide bomb exploded in a crowd outside an airport gate during the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.
In March, the Justice Department welcomed the arrest of Mohammad Sharifullah, an Afghan Islamic extremist whom it claimed had “organized” the attack. Gorka publicly described the dramatic scene in which he and several other ministers waited in the cold on the tarmac at 3 a.m. to pick up a plane carrying a handcuffed man “responsible for murder and genocide.”
Last month, just before Mr. Gorka’s strategy was announced, a federal jury returned a mixed verdict, dealing a blow to the “mastermind” narrative. Sharifullah was found guilty of aiding and abetting the terrorist organization known as Islamic State Khorasan, but the jury deadlocked on whether there was enough evidence to hold him responsible for the deaths in the Monastery Gate incident. This difference will determine how much time Sharifullah can spend in prison. If the crime is serious, he is subject to life imprisonment.
The Justice Department’s news release about the conviction (not the impasse) removed references to Sharifullah as the orchestrator, and also did not use the phrase “mastermind,” which appeared in the White House playbook days later.
Analysts also expressed skepticism about Blueprint’s claim that “hundreds of jihadist terrorists from multiple countries” were killed in recent U.S. counterterrorism operations. The government has released virtually no details about the identities of those targeted or the circumstances of their deaths. Humanitarian groups say they fear the operation could result in countless civilian casualties.
5. Your opponent becomes the target.
Human rights watchdogs say the strategy is indicative of how Trump administration officials seek to frame terrorist cases against left-wing and Islamic activists in the United States through vague or non-existent ties to extremist movements across the border.
Associations with foreign entities officially designated as terrorist groups open the door to government surveillance and potential charges related to providing aid (“material support” in legal terminology) to foreign terrorist organizations.
Analysts say that’s why the Trump administration is pursuing the designation of left-wing extremist groups in Europe and some branches of the Muslim Brotherhood under the Antifa label.
The Brotherhood is a century-old Islamist group that renounced violence in the 1970s, but offshoots like Hamas remain active and are blacklisted by the United States. Republicans have long sought to portray U.S.-based Muslim advocacy groups as a foothold for the Brotherhood.
The document also calls for “the rapid neutralization of violent secular political groups with anti-American, deeply pro-trans, and anarchist ideologies.” The researchers said these terms are ill-defined and not used in international counterterrorism efforts.
Miller-Idris has the biggest concern about Trump’s counterterrorism policy: “How harmful could it be? Both in what it ignores and what it emphasizes.”
