The new strategy marks a significant departure from both Trump’s first-term counterterrorism blueprint and the approach of the Biden Administration. For decades, U.S. counterterrorism policy has centered primarily on Islamist extremist networks like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. While Trump’s first-term strategy emphasized those threats, the new document broadens the focus to include drug networks and domestic ideological movements.
“We are taking ideology and counter ideology very seriously,” Gorka told reporters on Wednesday morning. “Whether it’s against Western civilization, America, the U.S. Constitution, our friends, our allies, peace in general.”
However, an analysis conducted last year by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan research institution, illustrates the imbalance in recent threats: over the past decade, right-wing extremists carried out 152 attacks in the United States and killed 112 people, compared with 35 attacks and 13 deaths attributed to left-wing extremists. Jihadist-inspired attacks accounted for 82 deaths over the same period.