U.S. President Donald Trump's government uses the term "internal terrorism" to discredit protesters
Originally published in Global Voices in Spanish
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In July 2020, in the middle of the repression No. Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 in the United States, the Nacoines Human Rights Committee issued a comment about what constitutes a peaceful lawful protest. He noted that Governments could not ban protests on the basis of "widespread references to public order or public security, or an unspecified risk of possible violence." The Committee further stated that the demonstrators were entitled to wear masks or hooves to hide their faces, and that Governments should not collect personal data to harass or intimidate the participants.
The UN Human Rights Committee's comment was made public a month after then American President Donald Trump, tweeted: "The national terrorists have taken over Seattle, ruled, as it could not be, by radical left-wing Democrats. LEY AND ORDEN!," referring to the organized protest of Capitol Hill (CHOP), a 23-day demonstration in the Capitol Hill district of Seattle, in the state of Washington, where anti-police violence protesters joined the Black Lives Matter movement.
Donald Trump's first administration was not the first to link the Black Lives Matter movement to the concept of terrorism. In 2015, The Intercept reported of an unusual use of the FBI's joint anti-terrorism working group to track the time and place of a Black Lives Matter demonstration held in December 2014 in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Related: Protesters are national terrorists
In early 2026, during the second term of Trump, Alex Pretti, manifestant gunned down by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Minnesota, he was named as a terrorist by Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff of the White House for Political Affairs. In a first publication In X, in response to the Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar's release of the shooting, Miller said, "A national terrorist tried to kill federal agents and this is what he responds to?..." Miller also released a second X-post with a similar message, in response to a Democratic Party publication that reported the death of Pretti, and called for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Control Service (known as ICE) to withdraw from Minneapolis.
Screenshot from a publication by Stephen Miller in X.
A national terrorist tried to kill federal agents and that's what they're responding to? You and all the Democratic team that runs the state have been stirring the flames of the insurrection for the sole purpose of stopping the deportation of the illegal immigrants who invaded the country..
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Donald Trump and all his subordinates who ordered this ICE offensive: see the horrible video of today's killing. The world is watching. Thousands of citizens arrested and harassed. The police can't do their job anymore. The kids hide. The schools are closed. Get ICE out of Minnesota.
Miller's publications supported the version of the events that the then United States Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noem, released stated that Pretti "came with weapons and ammunition to prevent a police operation of federal agents and committed an act of internal terrorism." According to Noem, "Pretti came to the place with the intention of causing as much harm as possible to people and of killing law enforcement officers." The interpretation of the situation by the Trump government officials was quickly denied by the videos who showed that Pretti seemed to be using his phone to record federal agents when you pushed him. Moments later, the agent repeatedly sprayed Pretti with pepper spray and then seemed to drag him into the street, where he was surrounded by several agents who shot him ten times.
Screenshot from a publication of Stephen Miller in X; legitimate use.
An alleged killer tried to kill federal agents and the official version of the Democrats is on the side of terrorists.
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ICE agents shot and killed another person in Minneapolis this morning.
Get ICE out of Minnesota YA.
Since 2025, Miller has described the protests against the frequent use of force by ICE and the policy of mass deportations of the Trump administration. In a interview October 2025 with CNN, referring to the Portland (Oregon) protest, Miller described the situation as a "definition of a manual of internal terrorism," as he considered that the protesters were "using the real and imminent threat of violence to prevent federal officials from doing their job."
This narrative is not exclusive to the United States or Trump administration. In 2022, then President of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe, qualified the "terrorists" protesters and resorted to the anti-terrorism law, the law to prevent terrorism, to arrest those who demanded a solution to the economic crisis in the country. In 2023, the President of Tunisia, Kais Saied, qualified of "terrorists" to detainees in the framework of their campaign of repression against dissidents and accused them, without providing evidence, of being involved in a "conspiracy against the internal and external security of the State," which continues to occur during the term of office of Saied. In 2024, after the controversial presidential electionsthe Government of Venezuela stopped and processed massively to demonstrators and electoral workers, who were accused of terrorism.
A version of this story was also released in 2025 in the United Kingdom, when the Palestinian Action activist group was described as a "terrorist" organization and was prohibited, a decision of the Government that then the British Court of Appeal declared legal. The Government of the United Kingdom proscribed Palestine Action under the Anti-Terrorism Act 2000 after several members in June They broke into a military airfield. and, reportedly, two military aircraft and other acts of property damage were painted with aerosol. According to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türkthe ban on Palestine Action raises serious concerns that United Kingdom anti-terrorism laws are being applied to non-terrorist behaviour, and warns that such measures risk restricting the legitimate exercise of fundamental freedoms throughout the country.
The context in which the narrative is framed
In mid-2025, started the protests in Portland, Oregon, after several asylum-seekers were arrested in front of the immigration court. In October 2025, Trump said that would send troops to control the situation while the protests continued, decision that was blocked by a federal judge. By the end of 2025, they were deployed more than 3000 ICE and Border Patrol agents all over Minnesota in a large-scale immigration control operation (Operation Metro Surge) that, according to Trump, resulted in more than 4000 arrests. During the operation, ICE and Border Patrol agents used aggressive tactics in the raids and shot three people during the operation, two with fatal result, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti. The actual number of detainees is unknown. In September 2026, activists deployed in the State Capitol of Minnesota sign more than seven meters long in protest of ICE violence and continued arrests. The poster has 11,000 patches representing the 11,000 missing.
Oregon and Minnesota are not the only states affected by the Government's immigration enforcement measures. The excessive use of ICE and Border Patrol force has remained widely documented throughout the country.
The Trump administration's narrative of internal terrorism is also reflected in the new regulations. In September 2025, President Trump signed a Decree with the aim of designating "Antifa" as "internal terrorist organization." Antifa, an abbreviation of "antifascist," refers to a decentralized network of activists, mainly associated with the extreme left.
Days later, he issued the Presidential Memorandum on National Security No. 7 (NSPM-7)which outlined the Trump administration's perspective on combating internal terrorism and organized political violence. Both measures have been the subject of strong criticism for violating the first amendment and criminalizing a long list of activities, including "distributing water at a demonstration involving visible supporters of Antifa, or providing online messaging or social media services, in the usual course of business, to people ideologically aligned with Antifa."
In December 2025, the then U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a Memorandum to implement President Trump's memorandum of September. The document urges prosecutors to investigate "conspiracies that hinder" law enforcement actions, and links Antifa to the paralyzation of the implementation of immigration policy, which reinforces the rhetoric used by Miller and Noem.
In anticipation of a massive deployment of federal law enforcement forces during the next mid-term elections, a coalition of civil rights organizations presented a demand against the Government.
