When they tell you what they’re planning, believe them.
On July 16, a conference that received little notice was held in the Loy Henderson Conference Room at the State Department, convened by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. Officially called the “Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism,” it was billed as an international coordination meeting on far-left violence.
At that conference, Bessent announced that Treasury would use its financial enforcement tools—the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and IRS Criminal Investigation—to investigate nonprofits and charities. He promised criminal prosecution and asset seizure.
What Bessent described was investigating organizations that fund protest, legal defense, and civil rights education. Ordinary nonprofit activity.
The presidential memorandum authorizing these investigations names “extremism on migration, race, and gender” and hostility to “traditional American views on family, religion, and morality” as indicators of so-called terrorism. That describes immigrant rights work, racial justice work, LGBTQ advocacy, and more.
Treasury can now investigate these groups, revoke their tax-exempt status, prosecute them criminally, and seize their assets if they find criminal violations. All based on suspicion, not proof. No law passed by Congress did this. The White House has decided that freedom of speech warranted a counterterrorism response.
When they tell you what they’re planning, believe them.
Notes To My Future Self 