Trump Administration Expands Counterterrorism Strategy to Include Cartels and Domestic Extremists

The Trump administration released a new counterterrorism strategy Wednesday that broadens U.S. national security policy to cover drug cartels and domestic extremist groups in addition to traditional jihadist threats. The 16-page document could expand the use of counterterrorism tools at home and abroad.

It identifies three main terrorist threats: narcoterrorists and transnational gangs, legacy Islamist terrorists, and violent left-wing extremists, including anarchists and anti-fascists. This marks a departure from post-9/11 approaches focused mainly on groups like ISIS and al Qaeda.

The strategy outlines a three-part plan: identify terrorist actors and plots before they happen, cut off funding and recruitment, and dismantle networks. Officials said this calls for wider use of intelligence, financial, and military tools against multiple threats.

The document expands the terrorism definition in ways that could extend national security powers beyond jihadist groups. That opens the way for more military, intelligence, and law enforcement action against cartels and U.S.-based actors.

It criticizes the intelligence community for sticking to old threat views and sometimes acting in political ways. The approach pushes to redefine and carry out counterterrorism priorities.

The strategy now includes domestic extremist violence, especially from left-wing movements. White House counterterrorism chief Sebastian Gorka said the administration targets politically motivated violence at home and will use all constitutional tools to disrupt extremists.

Gorka cited recent attacks, including the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. "If you look at the Tyler Robinson, as you mentioned, the murder of the assassin, of Charlie Kirk. If you look at Robert Westman, the murderer of the little children of the Annunciation Catholic School last year, we see an ideology that, ostensibly, began by preaching tolerance, being used by specific actors to wage violence against the most innocent, little children at Catholic schools at churches. This is a threat we will take very seriously."

"Whether you are right wing inspired or left being inspired, the point at which you advocate for violence or use violence yourself, for political purposes, means you are actually undertaking terrorism," Gorka added.

The plan calls for mapping and disrupting violent left-wing extremists with law enforcement powers. That could increase federal use of counterterrorism tools in domestic cases.

Drug cartels now rank as a core national security threat, placed alongside jihadist groups. Gorka called cartel violence a direct threat, noting drug smuggling deaths exceed U.S. combat fatalities over 70 years.

"More Americans were murdered by illicit drugs smuggled across the border by cartels in one year than in 70 years of combat fatalities of U.S. servicemen and women," he said. "They declared war on us. We are responding."

The strategy follows steps like designating major cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and military action against smuggling. Recent operations hit suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific to fight narcoterrorism.

"If we know where you are, if you killed Americans, if you're plotting to kill Americans, within 72 hours, we can kill you, we can arrest you or we can kill you," Gorka said.

The document puts Iran at the heart of global terrorism as the top state-backed threat. "The greatest threat to the United States emanating from the Middle East comes specifically from Iran," it states, pointing to Tehran's military power and support for groups like Hezbollah.

Gorka agreed. "Nine out of ten times, you scratch the surface of that threat, and three nanometers later, you find Iran," he said.

The strategy pushes ongoing military, intelligence, and covert operations against Iran and its proxies until Tehran no longer threatens the United States. It also calls for more aggressive use of tools and pressure on allies to share the load in a broader counterterrorism effort.