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Foreign. Hello, it's Miranda. I'm back with a new mini episode of Pod Force One. This feature is a little more topical and relevant to my job as a columnist for the New York Post. Today's topic is about the welcome new focus on real world violence in the Trump administration's new counterterrorism strategy Jihadis and cartels are targets of the new White House counterterrorism strategy, but so too are Antifa Trantifa and other violent domestic left wing anti American groups. It's a sharp departure from the Biden administration's sinister national strategy on counterterrorism that pretended groups like Antifa didn't exist and instead targeted Catholics at traditional mass, parents questioning gender ideology at school board meetings, and Trump supporters who Joe Biden assured us repeatedly were ultra maga semi fascist domestic terrorists. Hence the J6 Capitol riot by unarmed Trump supporters, most of whom committed no violence and many of whom did not even enter the Capitol, became the biggest investigation in FBI history under Biden, prompting one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in American history. Thankfully, President Trump's White House counterterrorism director Sebastian Gorka has reoriented national security back toward violence rather than vague anti government or anti authority sentiment, which can easily and was under Biden be weaponised politically. We're just basing our threat assessment on reality, whether you're trying to kill journalists, whether you're creating disorder against the rule of law in our country, or do I have to mention the name of my friend Charlie Kirk? Gorka told me on Pod Force One. Do I have to talk about the multiple left wing attempts to kill President Trump? We're not going to whistle past the graveyard. We're not going to say that doesn't exist. We are going to use every legal tool in our 17 intelligence agencies, in our domestic law enforcement through the DOJ to prevent the violent left wing lunacy from taking another life. Whether it's a journalist, whether it's a president, or whether it's a brave patriot like Charlie Kirk simply engaging in civilized debate on college campus. We will not allow people to use force against those they politically disagree with. It's welcome news to the majority of Americans who have felt trapped in a kafkaesque nightmare since 2020's Summer of Love, when organized left wing militias and well funded antifa style terrorists hijacked Black Lives Matter protests and tried to turn them into a violent overthrow of Donald Trump. They got their wish and part of Trump's defeat or his inability to win enough votes to overcome the Democrats sly election rigging has to be attributed to the general sense of chaos and unrest created by his ideological opponents. The same tactic has spiralled into the present day with evolving causes hijacked to justify the violence. It started with racism and so called white supremacy, defunding the police, abortion, transgender ideology, anti ICE and anti Israel, which has more morphed this week into masked terrorists hunting Jews on the streets of New York and assaulting children outside synagogues. And as Gorka explicitly says in his new counterterrorism strategy, this onslaught of left wing violence eventually brought us to targeted assassinations, including conservative activist Charlie Kirk, healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Israeli Embassy staffers Jeron Leshinsky and Sarah Milgram, and of course the multiple attempts against Donald Trump. Yet the establishment media and Democrat leaders and their administrative stooges have downplayed the violence, pretended it didn't exist or tacitly condoned it while exaggerating right wing violence, despite data including from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies showing record highs in left wing violence. The result is a permission structure to normalise the political violence of the Luigi left, as numerous recent polls have shown. For instance, a YouGov poll last September found 25% of very liberal Americans say violence can be justified to achieve political goals, compared with 3% of very conservative Americans. Gorka's blunt 16 page strategy memo released Wednesday pledges to prioritise identifying and neutralising violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti American, radically pro transgender and anarchist quote as real threats were ignored or underplayed. Americans have witnessed the political motivated killings of Christians and conservatives committed by violent left wing extremists, including the assassination of Charlie Kirk in September 2025 by a radical who espoused extreme transgender ideologies. End quote. Transgender shooters like Robin Westman who slaughtered two children at a Denunciation Catholic school in Minneapolis in August 2025 have targeted schools and church, while the mainstream media has blurred their gender, suppressed key details and downplayed an emerging pattern of transgender violence, presumably out of some misplaced fear that people in an already vulnerable community will be tarred with the same brush. But Americans are smart enough to understand that just as not every young loner turns into a Thomas Crooks, it is a minor subset of transgender individuals who turn violent. In any case, the Trump administration's reality based new focus is welcomed by Andrew Colbert, who was Kirk's right hand man at Turning Point USA and has taken over hosting the Charlie Kirk Show. This is a huge topic for us, he says. Obviously because Charlie was assassinated by somebody that had a romantic relationship with a trans identifying person in Utah, he says, pointing to the last message Kirk sent to Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, the day before he died. Miller quoted from that message in a special episode of the Charlie Kirk show the day after Kirk was murdered. The last message that Charlie sent me was that we need to have an organised strategy to go after the left wing organisations that are promoting violence in this country. And I will write those words onto my heart and I will carry them out. Still quoting People ask me what emotions I'm feeling right now. There's incredible sadness, but there's incredible anger. And the thing about anger is that unfocused or blind rage is not a productive emotion. But focused anger, righteous anger directed for a just cause, is one of the most important agents of change in human history. Prophetic words, but it's one thing to vow to crack down on left wing radicals, but they are swimming in an ideological soup that is not too different from Democrat talking points. See alleged gunman Cole Allen's manifesto after the latest assassination attempt on Trump. How does Gorka plan to target a diffuse ideology? We do everything in the bounds of the Constitution and upholding the freedom of speech, but freedom of speech does not extend to inciting violence. We are going to map out these individuals, we are going to identify them, we are going to find their sources of funding. The money trail is the most important thing. End quote. As per usual, the left wing media's response to the new counterterrorism strategy was alarmist hyperbole in defence of their pet revolutionaries. The Guardian dismissed the memo as a bizarre and unhinged attack on the President's enemies, the Biden administration, transgender people and some Islamist groups. End quote. Mother Jones headline was even more dishonest. Counterterrorism now officially means targeting trans people. Talk about incendiary. The left needs to wake up and disown the menace it has been coddling. Thanks for listening. I'll be back with another mini episode on Monday. Hope you can tune in and enjoy the rest of your week.
Pod Force One – PF1 Friday Minisode: Trump Admin Going After Violent Leftists
Host: Miranda Devine (New York Post)
Date: May 15, 2026
Miranda Devine presents a focused minisode discussing the Trump administration’s new counterterrorism strategy, which now explicitly targets not only foreign threats like jihadis and cartels but also violent domestic left-wing groups such as Antifa and “Trantifa.” Devine contrasts this approach with the previous Biden administration and features commentary from key political figures, including Sebastian Gorka and Andrew Colbert, on the rationale behind this policy shift and reactions from both conservative and progressive media.
1. New Administration Focus: Violence-Driven Threat Assessment
2. Contrast with Biden-Era Policy
3. Media Portrayal & Public Sentiment
4. High-Profile Cases & Pattern of Violence
5. Policy Mechanisms & Legal Boundaries
6. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
Sebastian Gorka [01:15]:
“We are going to use every legal tool in our 17 intelligence agencies, in our domestic law enforcement through the DOJ, to prevent the violent left wing lunacy from taking another life.”
Andrew Colbert [06:21]:
“This is a huge topic for us, obviously because Charlie [Kirk] was assassinated by somebody that had a romantic relationship with a trans identifying person in Utah…”
Stephen Miller (quoted via Colbert/Devine) [07:15]:
“The last message that Charlie sent me was that we need to have an organised strategy to go after the left wing organisations that are promoting violence in this country. And I will write those words onto my heart and I will carry them out.”
Stephen Miller – on reaction to Kirk’s murder [07:46]:
“People ask me what emotions I’m feeling right now. There’s incredible sadness, but there’s incredible anger… But focused anger, righteous anger directed for a just cause, is one of the most important agents of change in human history.”
7. Progressive Media Reaction & Cultural Divide
Miranda Devine adopts an assertive, combative tone, framing the Trump administration’s strategy as a return to “reality-based” counterterrorism focused on actual violence, unlike what she portrays as the politicized, ideologically selective targeting of the previous administration. She features strong statements from administration officials and conservative figures, and draws a sharp dividing line between left and right on the role of violence in politics. Throughout, she emphasizes concerns over media bias, the political normalization of violence on the left, and the importance of upholding constitutional limits while pursuing controversial policy goals.
This minisode is essential listening for followers of current policy debates on domestic extremism, civil liberties, and partisan divides in American political rhetoric.