Donald Trump’s DHS Designated White Supremacists As Greatest Terror Threat, Report Says

A Friday Politico piece claimed that Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) designated white supremacists as the greatest terror threat to the United States in a draft report. According to the publication, the document led to two later drafts that used different language to describe the danger posed by white supremacists.

“Foreign terrorist organizations will continue to call for Homeland attacks but probably will remain constrained in their ability to direct such plots over the next year,” all three versions of the document read.

Despite the Trump administration’s claims that the far-left militant group Antifa poses the largest terror threat to the United States, Politico reported none of the documents listed the movement.

John Cohen, who previously oversaw the DHS’s counterterrorism portfolio, stated the information in the reports was aligned with previous intelligence.

“This draft document seems to be consistent with earlier intelligence reports from DHS, the FBI, and other law enforcement sources: that the most significant terror-related threat facing the US today comes from violent extremists who are motivated by white supremacy and other far-right ideological causes.”

According to Politico, the first draft used the strongest language to describe the danger of white supremacy in the introduction section, “Key Takeaways.” But in the next two drafts, the documents did not name white supremacists in the introduction and instead referred to “Domestic Violent Extremists.” The second two drafts also highlighted the activities of dangerous extremists who capitalized on the unrest to promote their ideologies.

Ben Wittes, the editor in chief of the national security site Lawfare — who obtained and shared the information — said the shift in language is significant. Witte claimed the new wording “diminishes the prominence of white supremacy relative to other domestic violent extremism” and attempts to underplay the nature of white supremacist violence.

This is not the first time the danger of white supremacists has been downplayed recently. Previous reporting from The Intercept revealed leaked documents that suggested police officers knew far-right radicals were the most significant danger at George Floyd protests, which sparked a wave of civil unrest across the country. Notably, the report cited DHS information that documented far-right activity, including the promotion of attacks on law enforcement.

As The Inquisitr reported, Trump-appointed FBI Director Christopher Wray said last year that most domestic terrorism is the result of white supremacists. Notably, a May 2017 FBI/DHS intelligence report found that white supremacists were responsible for more homicides in the United States from 2000 to 2016 than any other terror group.