Trump invokes Kirk’s killing in justifying measures to silence opponents

Attorney General Pam Bondi in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Sept. 15, 2025. In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing, President Trump and his allies have laid out a broad plan to target liberal groups, monitor speech, revoke visas and designate certain groups as domestic terrorists. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)

By ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, ANDREW DUEHREN, KENNETH P. VOGEL and KATIE ROGERS

President Donald Trump has begun a major escalation in his long-running efforts to stifle political opposition in the United States, using the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk to make the baseless argument that Democratic organizations and protesters are part of a violent conspiracy against conservative values and the American way of life.

In the six days since Kirk was gunned down in Utah, Trump and his top officials have promised a broadside against the political left, indicating that they would go after liberal groups like George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and the Ford Foundation; revoke visas for people seen to be “celebrating” Kirk’s death; begin federal investigations into hate speech; and designate certain groups domestic terrorists.

“We want everything to be fair; it hasn’t been fair, and the radical left has done tremendous damage to the country,” Trump told reporters Tuesday, as he continued to play down and excuse violence on the right. “But we’re fixing it.”

The threats come even as authorities said the suspect in Kirk’s shooting acted alone and presented no evidence that political violence is coordinated on one side. Political violence is a scourge across the ideological spectrum, targeting Democrats and Republicans.

The 22-year-old man accused of assassinating Kirk said in text messages to his romantic partner that he had “had enough” of Kirk’s “hatred,” according to prosecutors who filed a murder charge against him Tuesday.

Trump’s aggressive moves to target only his political opponents is a continuation of his attempts to wield power — through lawsuits, executive orders and public intimidation — to punish people and institutions that power the political left, or that he believes wronged him. In recent months, Trump’s aides and conservative activists have worked to shape the kind of crackdown that now appears to be coming to fruition.

“When the left has had power, it has gone after conservatives and their speech, so I am thrilled to see the administration promising to investigate the left-wing nonprofit sector, and hold people accountable,” said Scott Walter, president of the conservative watchdog group Capital Research Center, which monitors money in politics.

Walter has briefed senior White House officials in recent months on a range of donors, nonprofit groups and fundraising techniques, while also providing research briefs, including one titled “Marching Toward Violence,” that purported to draw a connection between anti-Israel protests on college campuses and terrorism.

The plans that Trump and his aides have laid out since Kirk’s death have fueled fear among Democrats and free speech activists across the partisan spectrum, while energizing right-wing figures who see Democrats and the left more broadly as the enemy.

As a part of the crackdown, Trump’s aides are crafting an executive order to combat political violence and hate speech that could come as soon as this week, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the action. The person declined to provide details.

Some on the right worry that targeting hate speech could backfire against them next time Democrats are in power by opening what Walter called “a Pandora’s box that we could all come to regret.” He argued that the administration would be better served investigating whether some of the groups ran afoul of provisions in the tax code.

But the focus on speech does appear to be a key tool for the administration. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the administration would “absolutely target” protesters engaging in “hate speech,” as well as businesses that refused to print memorial vigil posters for Kirk.

And Vice President JD Vance encouraged Americans to report to employers anyone they noticed celebrating Kirk’s killing.

Trump officials were also laying the groundwork to go after what Vance described as a network of nonprofit nongovernment organizations that “foments, facilitates and engages in violence.”

Speaking as guest host Monday on Kirk’s podcast, Vance singled out Soros’ Open Society Foundations and the Ford Foundation and said both benefited from a “generous tax treatment.”

Targeting the tax-exempt statuses of nonprofits that are critical of Trump would most likely face legal challenges.

The IRS only takes that step after conducting a potentially lengthy audit, and an organization has several opportunities to appeal the decision. Federal law also prohibits the president from directing the IRS to audit specific organizations, and IRS employees can face criminal penalties if they obey an order from the White House to do so.

The Trump administration bumped up against these limitations earlier this year when Trump called for Harvard to lose its tax-exempt status. White House officials strained to argue that any IRS audit of the university was independent of Trump’s public statements.

But there is another method.

Any organization that the White House designates as a terrorist organization loses its tax-exempt status. Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday he would like to designate a range of unspecified groups as domestic terrorist organizations.

Since the loss of tax-exempt status is automatic, it is much harder for a nonprofit to challenge the decision under a terrorist designation than it is under the normal process.

But the administration also cannot easily designate domestic groups as terrorists, according to law enforcement officials. While the State Department keeps a list of foreign terrorist organizations, there is no similar mechanism for designating domestic groups as terrorists.

“Unless I missed a law or a statute, I don’t think there’s something on the books right now,” said Javed Ali, a former senior director at the National Security Council in Trump’s first term. “I don’t think there’s any sort of provision that would allow the administration to do this.”

Both the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Foundations issued statements condemning political violence.

“We oppose all forms of violence and condemn the outrageous accusations to the contrary,” Open Society Foundations said in a statement. “Our work is entirely peaceful and lawful.”

In its own statement, the Ford Foundation said that “the rise in politically motivated violence is a significant crisis in our society that all Americans need to join together to address.”

The Trump administration has also taken actions that stretch beyond the borders of the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that the administration has “most certainly been denying visas” to people celebrating Kirk’s killing.

Trump’s aides have also said they plan on investigating people suspected of burning Teslas in apparent protest of Elon Musk and assaults against immigration agents. Officials are also exploring establishing links between those episodes and organized groups.