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Report: Biden Administration Weaponizes DHS “Anti-Terrorism” Program Against Political Opponents

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Report: Biden Administration Weaponizes DHS “Anti-Terrorism” Program Against Political Opponents

Those paying attention to official D.C. already know that Joe Bidens political strategy involves portraying his political rivals, as not just wrong on policy or facts but as altogether illegitimate.

Now, recently revealed documents from an anti-terrorism” grant program administered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) illustrate the mutually reinforcing feedback loop between the Biden White House and its collaborators in academia. As those documents indicate, the administration uses taxpayer funds to support educationaland trainingprograms that portray the opposing political party and various mainstream groups like the NRA that champion causes popular with Republicans as gateways to violent radicalization.

The program at issue is DHS’ “Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program(TVTP). Its asserted goals include providing

financial assistance to eligible applicants to develop sustainable, multidisciplinary, targeted violence and terrorism prevention capabilities in local communities, to pilot innovative prevention approaches, and to identify prevention best practices that can be replicated in communities across the country. 

The Obama/Biden Administration launched the TVTP program in 2011, supposedly as a response to Al-Qaeda trying to recruit and radicalize American citizens. More recently, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas -- a staunch Biden political ally called the program high priorityin an internal memo.

Among TVTPs 2022 Fiscal Year awards was $352,109 to the University of Dayton Human Rights Center to implement its project, Preventing Radicalization to Extremist Violence through Education, Network-Building and Training in Southwest Ohio (PREVENTS-OH).Proponents of the project claimed it would:

raise awareness of the radicalization to violence process and establish a local prevention framework to counter it, develop and implement modules on the risks of and protective factors for radicalization to violence related to media literacy and online critical thinking for students, and improve civic engagement and build intergroup trust by conducting community dialogues on sensitive topics related to domestic violent extremism and developing local dialogue facilitation capacities.

What is now gaining attention, however, are the materials the University of Dayton Human Rights Center used to illustrate and substantiate the type of educationit would seek to provide with the awarded funds. Those materials came to light thanks to an investigative effort launched by the Media Research Center Free Speech America project.

The Universitys grant application, according to media reports, referenced materials from a PREVENTS-OH seminar presented in 2021 and entitled Extremism, Rhetoric, and Democratic Precarity.” Speakers at the seminar included a DHS official and University of Cincinnati researcher Michael Loadenthal, whose professional biography recounts his accomplishments in protest campaignsfor far-Left causes, including anarchistand anti-capitalistmovements.

Loadenthals presentation on Digital Communities of the Modern Far-Rightincluded a graphic entitled The Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization.At the base of the pyramid of these supposed radicalswere mainstream political, media, and non-governmental organizations, including the NRA, the Heritage Foundation, Fox News, the Christian Broadcasting Network, and even the Republican Party itself! The next level (supposedly representing a further progression toward violent radicalization) featured MAGA supporters, Breitbart News, Prager University, and the pro-police organization Blue Lives Matter. Above them on the third level was the Nazi Party itself. And above that on the top level were militia groups that advocate for racism and violent political change.

Other presenters at the 2021 PREVENTS-OH seminar, according to the MRC, suggested that individuals who oppose controversial policies promoted by the Biden Administration are ripe for infiltration by radicals. One speaker even suggested that current GOP presidential contender and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis might try to engineer a second Holocaust.

DHS, in a statement to the media, emphasized that the 2021 PREVENTS-OH seminar was not funded, organized, or hosted by DHS, and DHS did not endorse the The Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization.

Nevertheless, a DHS official was present at the event where that material and those narratives were presented. And the organization that hosted the event presenting those views to the public was the same organization receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funding through a TVTP grant for Fiscal Year 2022.

Moreover, although PREVENTS-OH scrubbed its own website of references to the 2021 seminar, according the Media Research Center, references to it are still archived on the Internet.

The NRA responded to the revelations by pointing out the obvious: Protecting 2A isn't terrorism, it's patriotism.

Patriots, however, are now on notice that the runaway Biden administration will do whatever it can to use the levers of official power against them to consolidate his own authority and to suppress any opposition. Their best hope is to wrest his hands away from those levers in the 2024 presidential election.

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North Carolina: Update on Permitless Carry

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

North Carolina: Update on Permitless Carry

Last week the North Carolina General Assembly briefly returned from recess and re-referred Senate Bill 50, Freedom to Carry NC, to the House Rules Committee.

First Affirmative Lawsuit in Support of Gun Owners Filed by Trump’s DOJ

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Monday, October 6, 2025

First Affirmative Lawsuit in Support of Gun Owners Filed by Trump’s DOJ

California officials’ egregious foot-dragging over the issuance of carry permits has finally attracted the ire of the federal Department of Justice (DOJ). 

President Trump’s GOP Leads Polling on Crime and Guns, To No Surprise

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Monday, October 6, 2025

President Trump’s GOP Leads Polling on Crime and Guns, To No Surprise

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll revealed that Americans know the President Donald Trump-led Republican Party has a better plan than their Democratic Party opponents on crime and gun control.

Federal Court Strikes Down Biden Administration’s “Engaged in the Business” Rule in NRA Case

Thursday, October 2, 2025

Federal Court Strikes Down Biden Administration’s “Engaged in the Business” Rule in NRA Case

Yesterday, in Butler v. Bondi, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama held that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives exceeded its statutory authority by issuing its 2024 Final Rule expanding ...

NRA Files Amicus Brief in Fifth Circuit Case Challenging the Federal Switchblade Act

Friday, October 3, 2025

NRA Files Amicus Brief in Fifth Circuit Case Challenging the Federal Switchblade Act

Yesterday, the National Rifle Association filed an amicus brief in Knife Rights, Inc. v. Bondi, urging the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas’s decision upholding the Federal ...

Trump Administration Repeals Biden Era Firearms Export Crackdown

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Monday, October 6, 2025

Trump Administration Repeals Biden Era Firearms Export Crackdown

Last Monday, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) at the U.S. Department of Commerce published a final rule that reversed a crackdown on the commercial export of firearms from the U.S. to other countries.

Trust in Mass Media Craters to New Lows, in Single Digits With Republicans

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Monday, October 6, 2025

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There’s an old saying that rings especially true to Second Amendment supporters: If you don’t read the news, you’re uninformed.

Canada’s Public Safety Minister on Gun Ban & Confiscation: “Don’t Ask Me to Explain the Logic”

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Monday, September 29, 2025

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There have been multiple developments on the Canadian gun grab and ban in the last few days, but the most astounding has got to be a leaked bombshell recording of the Liberal Public Safety Minister, ...

Alphabet Eases the Reins on Censorship; Will Gun Content Eventually Benefit?

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Tuesday, September 30, 2025

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With the free speech debate recently co-opted by one TV host’s use of false and incendiary remarks about his political opponents, it might have been easy to miss another important First Amendment story last week. 

U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Challenge to Hawaii’s Private Property Default Carry Ban

Friday, October 3, 2025

U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Challenge to Hawaii’s Private Property Default Carry Ban

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the petition for certiorari in Wolford v. Lopez, a challenge to Hawaii’s law forbidding carry on private property open to the public (such as restaurants, gas stations, and grocery stores) ...

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Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.