The Intercept

12/16/2025

THE COMMANDER OF the arm of the U.S. military responsible for President Donald Trump’s illegal military occupations of American cities said he is willing to conduct attacks on so-called designated terrorist organizations within the U.S. This startling admission comes after months of extrajudicial killings of alleged members or affiliates of DTOs in the waters near Venezuela, which experts and lawmakers say are outright murders.

Gen. Gregory Guillot of U.S. Northern Command, a four-star general who takes his orders from War Secretary Pete Hegseth, made clear his position in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week. When asked about his willingness to attack DTOs within U.S. borders by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., he replied: “If I had questions, I would elevate that to the chairman and the secretary. … And if I had no concerns and I was confident in the lawful order, I would definitely execute that order.”

Guillot’s openness about the potential for unprecedented military action within U.S. borders comes as the White House, Pentagon, and Justice Department continue to refuse to rule out summary executions of Americans on Trump’s secret enemies list, after weeks of requests for clarifications from The Intercept.

“That is one of the concerns with the administration asserting that the President essentially has a license to kill outside the law based on his own say so,” said Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer who is a specialist in counterterrorism issues and the laws of war. “That prerogative might be wielded elsewhere — including inside the United States.”

“The founders designed our government to be a system of checks and balances. Defendants, however, make clear that the only check they want is a blank one,” U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wrote in a 35-page opinion last week, ordering Trump to end the Los Angeles troop deployment. “It defies the record — and common sense — to conclude that risks stemming from protests — in August, October, or even present day — could not have been sufficiently managed without resorting to the National Guard.”

“Within the context of the Federal Protection Mission, forces under the command and control of NORTHCOM protect federal property and federal personnel as they enforce federal law,” said Meadows, despite the statement having little to do with questions posed by The Intercept.

The Pentagon refused to say if DTOs are operating in America, directing The Intercept to the White House and Justice Department.

The Justice Department pointed The Intercept to comments made on Monday by Bill Essayli, who leads the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, as he announced the weekend arrests of members of what he called “a far-left, anti-government, domestic terror cell,” known as the Turtle Island Liberation Front, for allegedly planning a series of bomb attacks across Southern California on New Year’s Eve.

“This investigation was initiated in part due to the September 2025 executive order signed by President Trump to root out left-wing domestic terror organizations in our country, such as Antifa and other radical groups,” he explained, referencing National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, or NSPM-7, under which Trump instructed his administration to target U.S. progressive groups and their donors as well as political activists who profess undefined anti-American, anti-fascist, or anti-Christian sentiments.

NSPM-7 also directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to compile a list “of any such groups or entities” to be designated as “domestic terrorist organization[s]” and Bondi has ordered the FBI to “compile a list of groups or entities engaging in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism,” according to a December 4 Justice Department memo, “Implementing National Security Presidential Memorandum-7: Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” which the Justice Department shared with The Intercept. Essayli also referenced that memo, stating that it mobilized “federal law enforcement to prioritize and counter domestic terrorism and political violence investigations.” He added, “As a result of those directives, we built this case.”

Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller issued an ominous pronouncement about the administration’s crackdown on dissent in America on Monday. “Following the issuance of NSPM-7 vast government resources have been unleashed to find and dismantle the violent fifth column of domestic terrorists clandestinely operating inside the United States,” he wrote on X.