Stop the Political Weaponization of National Security Assets

The 2026 U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy represents a dangerous pivot toward using federal intelligence infrastructure as a mechanism for ideological policing. By explicitly classifying domestic political movements—specifically anti-fascists and left-wing groups—as primary national security threats on par with international terror networks, the executive branch is bypassing clear statutory boundaries to monitor protected domestic speech. National security directives must rely on empirical evidence, not administrative bias. Bipartisan tracking of domestic extremist incidents over the past decade by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reveals a stark data imbalance: right-wing actors were responsible for over 81% of attacks and more than 89% of fatalities, while left-wing actors accounted for less than 19% of incidents and 10% of deaths. Fabricating a false equivalence to elevate a minor statistical subset into a primary national security threat is a severe failure of institutional competency. The core of this strategy—directives to map memberships and deploy intrusive tracking capabilities against some political groups—presents immediate constitutional violations. Directing intelligence powers traditionally reserved for foreign adversaries against American citizens who oppose administration policies violates foundational First Amendment protections and Fourteenth Amendment Due Process standards. When the executive branch manipulates public safety metrics to enforce ideological surveillance, it breaks the rule of law and misallocates vital federal resources away from verified threats. Congress has a clear constitutional duty under Article I to reassert its oversight authority and protect citizens from partisan government overreach. I urge you to demand a formal review of the 2026 Counterterrorism Strategy through the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, and to introduce appropriations language blocking federal funds from being used for domestic surveillance operations that lack a verified, non-ideological criminal predicate.