The Trump administration has weakened America’s counterterrorism defenses by cutting staff, politicizing intelligence activities, reducing grants, and forcing federal agents to focus on immigration enforcement, according to a new report by Senate Democrats on the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs obtained by MS NOW.
The 37-page document also claims that the administration shifted its focus on domestic terrorism almost exclusively to left-wing groups, ignoring significant threats from far-right extremists and white supremacists. “From the first day of his second term, President Trump and his administration dismantled critically important national security agencies and programs and diverted significant resources and attention away from counterterrorism,” the report states.
These actions are attributed to a combination of ideologically motivated firings, staff reallocations, and the use of government resources — from grants to counterterrorism authorities — as tools against political opponents. “The administration’s actions have made Americans much more vulnerable to potential terrorist attacks and left law enforcement officers and agents without the tools to protect our nation,” the report continues. It also notes that the second Trump administration significantly weakened the extensive counterterrorism infrastructure built after the 9/11 attacks and refined over the subsequent 25 years. MS NOW reached out to the White House for comment on the report.
Staff and funding cuts
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) lost over 15,000 employees, including many experienced national security experts. Others were reassigned, including the entire staff of the FBI’s Domestic Terrorism Operations Unit, which provided operational support to all 55 FBI field offices in investigating domestic terrorism threats, the report states.
The Department of Justice’s National Security Division, which includes counterterrorism and intelligence sections, lost nearly 38% of its staff. As reported by MS NOW, these dismissals included some of the most experienced national security lawyers in the government. “These cuts essentially mean that fewer experienced professionals are doing their jobs, which involve tracking threats,” said Senator Gary Peters, the leading Democrat on the committee. The administration also significantly reduced key units within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), firing over 1,300 employees involved in counterterrorism, countering terrorism, and responding to it. MS NOW contacted the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security for comments on the report’s statements.
Additionally, the administration cut CISA — the agency responsible for protecting critical infrastructure from cyber and physical attacks. CISA conducts vulnerability scanning and penetration testing for utilities, hospitals, and election systems, identifying vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by American adversaries, including terrorists. However, this agency now performs significantly less of this work, the report notes. The Trump administration also cut nearly $1 billion in national security and public safety grants for state and local governments.
Politicization and redirection of efforts
The administration required law enforcement personnel, intelligence analysts, and lawyers across the government to focus on immigration enforcement “at the expense of national security and homeland security missions from which they were diverted,” according to the report. The document also criticizes how the Trump administration changed the very definition of terrorism, stating that it politicized and undermined counterterrorism efforts. “Designating cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations changed the very definition of terrorism and overly diffused the country’s counterterrorism resources,” the report states. It adds that the designation of Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization was unlawful and politically motivated.
The report claims that Donald Trump downplayed certain types of terrorism and redirected counterterrorism resources from deadly threats to the nation to the pursuit of his political opponents. For example, the administration quietly removed from its website a Department of Justice study showing that since 1990, attacks by far-right extremists had surpassed all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism.
The latest annual threat assessment from the intelligence community, published on March 17, “also confirms concerns about politicized intelligence, particularly regarding terrorism and Iran,” the report states. “It does not mention domestic terrorism, including lone actors, white supremacists, or threats to U.S. elections.” The administration’s counterterrorism strategy from May 2026 focuses on cartels, gangs, and “traditional Islamist terrorists,” as well as a third priority: “violent left-wing extremists, including anarchists and anti-fascists.”
The strategy report states: “By the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, America has returned to a counterterrorism strategy based on common sense and reality.” The strategy also states: “President Trump conducted a full review of how we address threats to America, based on national sovereignty and civilizational confidence, aimed at destroying groups that will kill Americans or harm our interests as a free nation. This applies to cartels, jihadists, violent left-wing extremists, state actors and state s
