Trump orders crackdown on ‘left wing terrorism’ in escalation of a campaign against political rivals

President Donald Trump on Thursday directed his administration to crack down on backers of what he dubbed “left-wing terrorism,” naming two top Democratic donors as he alleged without evidence a vast conspiracy to finance violent protests against the government.

Trump’s directive put the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Taskforce in the lead and said the effort would span agencies across the administration, including the Treasury Department, “to identify and disrupt financial networks that fund domestic terrorism and political violence.”

The pursuit of what the president said were the funders of “agitators and anarchists” is the latest instance of Trump using the power of his office to pursue his political rivals. When pressed by a reporter to name any possible targets, he suggested two of the Democratic Party’s top donors — billionaires George Soros and Reid Hoffman.

“If they are funding these things, they’re going to have some problems,” Trump said.

Trump had threatened such an order after the assassination earlier this month of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and a shooting outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Dallas, killing one detainee and wounding two others. Authorities have identified the suspected gunmen in each case, but no information has been made public so far to suggest they were backed by a wider network.

In a statement Thursday, before Trump’s announcement, Soros’ Open Society Foundation in a statement referred to previous accusations made by the Republican president, saying its activities are peaceful and lawful.

“These accusations are politically motivated attacks on civil society, meant to silence speech the administration disagrees with and undermine the First Amendment right to free speech,” the organizations said.

Hoffman, who helped start PayPal and the networking site LinkedIn, could not immediately be reached for comment.