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pramila jayapal
House Democrats Blast Trump's Antifa Designation and Terrorism Memo Targeting Critics
"The sweeping language and broad authority in these directives pose serious constitutional, statutory, and civil liberties risks, especially if used to target political dissent, protest, or ideological speech."
Oct 16, 2025
Over 30 Democrats in the US House of Representatives wrote to President Donald Trump on Thursday to condemn his designation of antifa as a domestic terrorist organization and a related memorandum targeting the Republican's opponents.
Democratic Reps. Mark Pocan (Wis.), Jared Huffman (Calif.), and Pramila Jayapal (Wash.) led the letter, which builds on criticism that has mounted since late last month, when Trump issued the executive order against antifa—even though the nationwide anti-fascist movement has no central organizational structure or leaders.
Days later, Trump signed National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), which, as the letter details, "directs federal officials to crack down on organized political violence, which you define to include 'anti-Christianity,' 'anti-capitalism,' and 'hostility toward those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.'"
The lawmakers wrote that "while protecting public safety and countering genuine threats are essential responsibilities of government, the sweeping language and broad authority in these directives pose serious constitutional, statutory, and civil liberties risks, especially if used to target political dissent, protest, or ideological speech."
"Regardless of whether the president agrees with someone's political views, the Constitution guarantees their right to speak and assemble peacefully," they stressed. They also noted that "neither the memo nor the executive order clearly defines 'antifa' as a specific entity. Instead, the executive order conflates nonviolent protest and activism with doxing and violent behavior."
"While the threat of political violence demands vigilance, your administration must not use this moment to undermine the very constitutional and democratic principles we are sworn to uphold," they concluded. "These actions are illegal, and we demand you immediately rescind both the memorandum and the executive order. We stand ready to take legislative action should you fail to do so."
The letter, which its organizers began circulating earlier this month, was sent to Trump ahead of a second round of "No Kings" protests planned for Saturday. Demonstrators intend to take to the streets in over 2,500 US communities to denounce the president's unprecedented and accelerating attacks on democracy. A key ally of Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), on Wednesday called for passing his bill to "prosecute" funders of the rallies.
In addition to dozens of House Democrats—including lawmakers from Illinois and Oregon, where Trump has deployed immigration agents and tried to federalize the National Guard, sparking court battles—the letter is endorsed by American Atheists, American Humanist Association, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Amnesty International, Council for Global Equality, Freedom From Religion Foundation, Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, Immigration Equality, MPact Global Action, National Women's Law Center, and Secular Coalition for America.
The order and memo are just part of the Trump administration's broad crackdown on dissent, which has also included trying to deport foreign students who criticize Israel's US-backed genocide in the Gaza Strip, cutting reporters off from the Pentagon for refusing to sign a "flatly unconstitutional" press policy, and bullying Disney-owned ABC into temporarily suspending late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.
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Mass Firing Threat Proves Shutdown Is 'Project 2025 in Action,' Says Jayapal
The White House "does want to use the shutdown to inflict more pain on the American people, instead of addressing the healthcare crisis that we have."
Oct 05, 2025
US Rep. Pramila Jayapal said Sunday that the government shutdown that began last week and could be used as President Donald Trump's latest reason for mass firings of federal workers is "Project 2025 in action" and condemned the Republican Party's push to "inflict the most pain on Americans" that they can.
Jayapal (D-Wash.) spoke to MSNBC as the shutdown entered its fifth day, emphasizing that while the White House is threatening to fire federal workers en masse due to legislators' failure to reach a deal on a spending package to keep the government open, the Trump administration has already overseen the dismissal of more than 100,000 public servants.
"They have actually already fired at least 150,000 federal workers," said Jayapal. "They've already slashed agencies across the board and [Office of Management and Budget director] Russ Vought does want to use the shutdown to inflict more pain on the American people, instead of addressing the healthcare crisis that we have—both from the Big Bad Betrayal Bill and from the upcoming crisis we have around the Affordable Care Act subsidies."
Jayapal's comments came as Kevin Hassett, the National Economic Council director, told CNN that whether or not Trump takes advantage of what he has called an "unprecedented opportunity" to make more cuts to agencies is contingent on whether Democrats agree to the GOP spending proposal—which would keep the government funded for the time being but would allow for the expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies and the Medicaid cuts that were part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The expiration of the subsidies could raise health insurance premiums by an average of 75% for millions of Americans, according to a KFF analysis.
Hassett expressed hope that the Democrats will be "reasonable once they get back into town on Monday."
"And if they are, then I think there’s no reason for those layoffs," he said.
On Saturday, unions representing public employees filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to block the administration from moving forward with the mass firings—with Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), placing the blame for the shutdown squarely with the GOP.
“These threatened mass firings are the latest attack on working people by an administration abusing its power to push through its extreme Project 2025 agenda,” said Saunders. “We’re facing a healthcare crisis with millions of Americans about to see their health insurance payments skyrocket, and instead of working across the aisle to solve it, the administration is threatening to use its orchestrated shutdown as an excuse to fire federal workers who perform critical services that Americans rely on. The threatened mass firings are unlawful. Public service work is vital to our communities, and we will do everything in our power to defend it.”
AFSCME and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) requested the temporary restraining order days after filing a lawsuit against Vought and other administration officials over the mass firing threat.
Norm Eisen, executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, which is helping to represent the unions, noted that Congress mandates "strict limits for personnel matters during a shutdown."
“Donald Trump's and his administration's rampant lawlessness continues, and so must the effort to hold him accountable,” said Eisen. “The administration's latest outrage against the Constitution and human decency is abusing the government shutdown to put in motion the firing of government workers. But Trump and his team have no such legal authority."
"The federal courts have served as a bulwark against prior illegalities and we look forward to a hearing here," he added.
Democrats in Illinois last week accused the president of also using the shutdown to threaten congressionally-approved funding for infrastructure projects in Chicago.
" Donald Trump and Russ Vought of Project 2025 are using this shutdown to inflict as much pain as they can," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) Saturday. "They're withholding federal money that has already been approved by Congress to target and punish American communities. This is illegal."
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Trump and Vought Turn Shutdown Into a 'Weapon' to Target Democrats
"It's going to harm them," boasted Sen. Mike Lee, a top Trump cheerleader. "Russ Vought, the OMB director, has been dreaming about this moment... since puberty."
Oct 02, 2025
President Donald Trump is using the government shutdown to carry out an unprecedented attack on his enemies through more layoffs of federal workers and cuts to grants aimed at blue states.
In the Oval Office Tuesday, hours before the shutdown began, Trump told reporters that “when you shut it down, you have to do layoffs. So, we’d be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected, and they’re Democrats. They’re gonna be Democrats.”
In the days leading up to the shutdown, congressional Democrats attempted to force Republicans to roll back cuts to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act subsidies—cuts that are expected to result in as many as 15 million Americans losing their health insurance while raising premiums for tens of millions more. Trump and the GOP have blamed Democrats for the shutdown, falsely claiming that theyare pushing to fund free healthcare for "illegal aliens."
However, they've struggled to make this story land with the American public. A Washington Post poll released Thursday found that 47% of US adults blame Trump and Republicans for the shutdown, while just 30% blame Democrats and 23% say they are unsure. The sample was divided roughly equally between those who voted for Trump and those who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris (D) in 2024.
In what Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) called an effort to use "taxpayer dollars to try and shift blame," the websites for numerous government agencies—including the US departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), as well as Justice, Agriculture, and several others—were updated with banners that blamed "Democrats" and the "Radical Left" for the shutdown.
Meanwhile, government employees, including those at the Small Business Administration (SBA) were directed to include similar partisan language in their out-of-office auto-reply emails.
Experts have told Politico that the use of taxpayer money for such explicit partisan messaging likely violates multiple ethics laws, including the Anti-Lobbying Act, which forbids the use of appropriated funds for lobbying activities designed to “support or defeat legislation pending before Congress.” It also pushes the boundaries of the Hatch Act, which requires federal programs to be used in a nonpartisan fashion.
The progressive consumer watchdog group Public Citizen said it has filed complaints against HUD and the SBA for what it said was an "obvious Hatch Act violation."
"The SBA and other agencies increasingly adopting this illegal, partisan tactic think they can get away with it because Trump has gutted any and all ethics oversight of the federal government," said Craig Holman, a government ethics expert with Public Citizen.
After being asked about Trump's promise to lay off "Democrats" at a press conference on Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance told reporters, "We are not targeting federal agencies based on politics."
But in a Truth Social post early Thursday morning Trump struck a somewhat different tone. He spoke of plans to meet with Russell Vought, the director of the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), "to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut. I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity."
Trump also proudly described Vought as "he of PROJECT 2025 fame," referencing his leading role in crafting the Heritage Foundation's infamous blueprint for a far-right takeover of government—a takeover carried out in part through the purging of civil servants disloyal to Trump. During the 2024 election, Trump repeatedly insisted that he had "nothing to do with" Project 2025.
Vought has already begun to unilaterally withhold congressionally appropriated dollars for projects specifically for blue cities and states.
On Wednesday, he said that $18 billion in subway and tunnel funding for New York City had been “put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional [diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)] principles.” Not long before that, Trump had threatened to entirely cut off federal funding to the city if its voters elect the democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and current frontrunner, as its next mayor in November.
Vought then announced Thursday that he was also stripping away another nearly $8 billion worth of funding for climate-related projects, referring to it as "Green New SCAM funding to fuel the Left's climate agenda." Vought said that the funding was being withheld exclusively from projects in states led by Democrats: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington state.
House Republicans were reportedly told by Vought on Wednesday that mass firings would also begin in "one to two" days, though he did not outline specifics about who would be fired. However, a memo Vought issued last week instructed agencies to prepare to eliminate employees “not consistent with the president’s priorities," triggering a lawsuit from federal workers' unions.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told the press Thursday that Vought was carrying out these cuts "reluctantly" and is "not enjoying the responsibility" of deciding which programs and employees get the axe.
But in an interview on Fox News, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a top Trump cheerleader, was a bit more candid, proudly declaring that Trump and Vought are using the shutdown specifically to hurt Democrats.
"They're doing it deliberately. It's going to harm them," Lee said. "Because Russ Vought, the OMB director, has been dreaming about this moment, preparing for this moment, since puberty."
Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) said that "Vought is pushing a scheme to turn a government shutdown into a weapon to fire career civil servants and dismantle programs Congress has already passed into law. That is not only reckless. It is flatly illegal and unconstitutional."
"Have we ever had a president work so hard to hurt the people he represents?" asked Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). "I'm not going to be intimidated by these crooks."
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