President Trump issued NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM/NSPM-7 on Sept. 7, 2025.

Addressing domestic terrorism, NSPM-7 states that “Common threads animating this violent conduct includes anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion and morality”.

On Dec. 4, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a follow-up memorandum addressed to all federal law enforcement agencies. It states in part “These domestic terrorists use violence or the threat of violence to advance political and social agendas, including opposition to law and immigration enforcement; extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders; adherence to radical gender ideology, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism or anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; hostility towards traditional views on family, religion and morality.”

And further, “the FBI, in coordination with its partners on the JTTFs (Joint Terrorism Task Force), and consistent with applicable law, shall compile a list of groups or entities engaged in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism … The FBI and its JTTF partners must adopt strategies similar to those used to address violent crime and organized crime to disrupt and dismantle entire networks of criminal activity.”

Stated in simple language, any person or organization that holds non-traditional views on family, religion, morality or gender ideology, opposes the administration’s immigration policies; is anti-Americanism (sic), anti-capitalism or anti-Christianity should be put on a list of suspected domestic terrorists and investigated. Despite distinct orders to compile the list, the government has not acknowledged the existence of such a list. So good luck if anyone wants to know if they are on a list or not.

The obvious question is, how will the FBI, Joint Terrorism Task Force, and other agencies find out who to investigate and put on their list. Don’t expect a federal agent to knock on your door, stake out your home, follow you around or question your friends and neighbors. Their job is now much easier than it used to be.

Today, law enforcement agencies can search huge databases of information on you, me and every other American. The databases are built by private companies (most notably Palantir) with federal contracts. These databases can compile information from different federal agencies, like the IRS and Social Security Administration, location data from cell phone GPS and license plate readers, social media contacts and activity, phone records, financial history, biometric data, travel history, medical records, credit card history and video surveillance cameras. Federal agents can search the databases and use AI to generate risk assessments, all without a warrant.

In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack the federal government compromised Americans’ privacy for the sake of perceived safety, and the advances in technology since then have made possible this massive collection and management of data. If you are skeptical about this, consider: There are more than 80,000 license plate readers operated by government and police agencies in the U.S. There are an approximately equal number of video surveillance cameras, 20,000 of which are operated by police departments. Police also routinely monitor and collect data from private cameras. ICE has contracted private companies to surveil social media.

This data collection and surveillance have been justified as necessary to keep us safe. But we are now seeing the government weaponize this information to threaten, investigate and potentially prosecute citizens for views and opinions it disagrees with. It is a sad day when I feel more threatened and endangered by my government than by terrorists. Heck, I am probably considered a terrorist now.

John Monroe lives in Saranac Lake