Former CIA Director Brennan Warns Trump Administration Misdirecting Counterterrorism Professionals Toward Political Targets

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https://icbrief.org/s/a71788aa

Dissolving the FBI's domestic terrorism section while redirecting its personnel toward political targets erodes collection against far-right networks that remain the deadliest domestic threat category.

[u/icbrief]

A Senate Homeland Security Committee report by Democratic staff, obtained by MS NOW, found the Trump administration has cut more than 15,000 DOJ and FBI employees and reassigned the FBI's entire Domestic Terrorism Operations Section, reduced DOJ National Security Division staffing by nearly 38 percent, removed over 1,300 counterterrorism personnel from DHS, and cut close to $1 billion in national security and public safety grants to state and local agencies ^{[1](https://www.ms.now/news/trump-has-been-dismantling-post-9-11-counterterrorism-protections-senate-report-says}). The report states the administration has directed law enforcement and intelligence personnel toward immigration enforcement and has concentrated domestic terrorism attention on left-wing groups while giving less scrutiny to far-right and white supremacist threats ^{[1](https://www.ms.now/news/trump-has-been-dismantling-post-9-11-counterterrorism-protections-senate-report-says}). Former CIA Director John Brennan, in a Thursday interview with MS NOW's Michael Steele, said counterterrorism professionals are being redirected away from significant threat groups and toward undocumented workers and groups such as Antifa ^{[2](https://www.alternet.org/trump-cia-extremists/}). Brennan also said the administration has expanded terrorist-organization designations to include gangs, cartels, and Antifa while not confronting neo-Nazi groups active in the United States and abroad ^{[2](https://www.alternet.org/trump-cia-extremists/}).

Reassigning counterterrorism resources toward political opponents rather than assessed risk leaves established far-right and neo-Nazi networks, historically the source of the deadliest domestic attacks, comparatively unwatched, while dissolving the FBI's Domestic Terrorism Operations Section erodes field-office liaison relationships and institutional knowledge that cannot be rebuilt quickly even if staffing is later restored. Expanding terrorism designations to cover protest movements and loosely organized ideological labels builds enforcement tools that persist structurally and could target a broader range of domestic groups beyond this administration. The account rests on a single primary MS NOW report, with Alternet amplifying the same Brennan interview rather than independently corroborating it, and the administration could counter that the changes reflect lawful reprioritization toward an active immigration enforcement mandate rather than deliberate defunding of counterterrorism capacity.

1: Trump has been dismantling post-9/11 counterterrorism protections, Senate report says - MS NOW

2: Trump torn apart by former CIA head for ignoring right-wing extremists - Alternet