Domestic terrorismDHS’s New Counterterrorism Strategy Calls Out White Supremacism, but Will Need Resources and Support

By Thomas S. Warrick

Published 3 October 2019

Acting U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan unveiled on September 20 the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “Strategic Framework for Countering Terrorism and Targeted Violence.” For the first time, a formal Trump administration departmental strategy explicitly calls out white supremacism as “one of the most potent forces driving domestic terrorism.” In most other respects, the strategic framework did not break new ground. DHS’s real challenge will be whether its new counterterrorism (CT) framework will get the resources and political support DHS needs from the White House and the Congress.

Acting U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan unveiled on September 20 the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “Strategic Framework for Countering Terrorism and Targeted Violence.” For the first time, a formal Trump administration departmental strategy explicitly calls out white supremacism as “one of the most potent forces driving domestic terrorism.” In most other respects, the strategic framework did not break new ground. DHS’s real challenge will be whether its new counterterrorism (CT) framework will get the resources and political support DHS needs from the White House and the Congress.

Here are five key takeaways from the new DHS CT strategy:

This is the First Departmental Strategic Framework in the Trump Administration to Call Out White Supremacism as a Major Domestic Terrorism Threat
The DHS framework notes that domestic terrorism has caused more deaths in the United States in recent years than al-Qaeda, ISIS, or other foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs). The framework identifies “White supremacist violent extremism” as “one of the most potent forces driving domestic terrorism.” DHS publicly names some of the social media sites used by white supremacists, including the one used by perpetrators of the April 27 shooting at a synagogue in Poway, California that killed one person and the August 3 shootings at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas that killed twenty-two people. DHS says it is vital that the department helps state and local partners counter the influence of terrorists and violent extremists in online space, and notes that both radical Islamist terrorists and white supremacist violent extremists have been “essential to their recent growth.”

In May and June, officials from DHS, the FBI, and Department of Justice (DOJ) testified before subcommittees on the Hill about domestic terrorism and white supremacism, but this DHS framework is the first detailed strategic acknowledgement of the significance of the white supremacist terrorism threat.