White House Weighs Order Labeling Some Nonprofits as Having Terror Ties
The Trump administration is weighing an executive order that would brand certain nonprofit organizations as having ties to terrorism and immediately suspend their tax-exempt status, The Independent reported Friday, citing The Wall Street Journal.
Which groups would be named — and how many — remains unclear. The proposal has been under discussion for months and would use what the Journal called an “untested” tax-code provision to cut off exemptions faster than the IRS’s usual investigation track.
Losing tax-exempt status would hit both the organizations’ own tax bills and donors’ ability to claim deductions, a financial choke point for advocacy groups that live on contributions.
A White House official told the Journal the talk was “speculative.” Reporters were told in April that such an order was not under consideration. Friday’s report lands days after Democrats flipped Congress and hours after Trump elevated Stephen Miller to chief of staff.
Miller’s Long Push
Miller has pressed for more aggressive probes of groups he claims may have terrorism ties, including Antifa. Trump designated Antifa a domestic terrorist organization in an executive order last September, and Reuters reported in October that multiple agencies were enlisted in a crackdown on liberal nonprofits that Miller spearheaded.
The Independent noted the contemplated order builds on a wider campaign to investigate and penalize certain nonprofits. Last year Trump signed a memorandum directing the IRS to monitor tax-exempt groups for domestic-terrorism activity.
Separately, the Justice Department has indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on allegations it defrauded donors by concealing informant payments; the SPLC has denied the charges.
Former IRS official Carolyn Schenck told the Journal the tools themselves are not new. “What is new and potentially very consequential is putting them together around the same organizations and the same conduct,” she said, describing a cross-agency “enforcement infrastructure.”
Civil-liberties groups warn that an order letting the White House freeze tax status on terror-tie allegations could sweep in mainstream opponents of Trump without a full IRS adjudication. Administration allies argue nonprofits that fund or shield political violence have hidden behind 501(c) status for too long.
Miller’s promotion makes the speculative draft more than a paper exercise. As chief of staff starting Monday, he will sit atop the memo chain that turns contested options into signed orders.
Democrats who just won Congress are already signaling Oversight and tax-writing fights over any such order. Advocacy groups that oppose Trump’s immigration and speech policies say they expect to be first on any target list if the draft moves.
Until the White House names targets or releases text, the story is intent and architecture: a faster off-ramp from tax exemption, tied to terrorism language, advanced by the same adviser now running the West Wing after midterm losses.
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