On April 5, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein released a Substack article titled “Exclusive: FBI’s New Political Pre-Crime Center”, including a screenshot of an alleged new budget request from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to Congress for the 2027 fiscal year. (Klippenstein is a fairly well-respected national security journalist who often does receive anonymous and exclusive information, though as far as I can tell, this screenshot has not been independently verified.) The request directly connects to domestic terrorism (DT) screenings under the National Security Presidential Memoranda-7 (NSPM-7), and is believed to be connected to the expansion and redefinition of the Threat Screening Center (TSC) within the FBI under current director Kash Patel.
NSPM-7, “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence”, was released by Donald Trump on September 25, 2025. It is widely suspected that this was largely a response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk, who was even mentioned by name in NSPM-7. NSPM-7 directed the FBI to investigate domestic extremists, particularly those connected to Antifa or anti-fascism, defined within NSPM-7 as “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality”.
The TSC (originally the Terrorism Screening Center) was originally formed in connection to the Patriot Act and other programs that increased government surveillance in the name of ensuring national security in the wake of 9/11. However, in March of 2025, it was renamed to the Threat Screening Center, as part of an expansion in both domestic and transnational FBI investigations. Some of these expansions had been due to the actions of previous presidents, including Barack Obama and Joe Biden. (These were some of the expansions that Edward Snowden became an infamous whistleblower for.) However, they were widely expanded as a result of NSPM-7 (Klippenstein, “Secretive Watchlisting Center Executing NSPM-7”, 7 October 2025).
According to Patel, under his leadership, the number of DT investigations has increased roughly 300%, as of the start of October. Much of this was done by the expanded TSC even prior to NSPM-7. However, there were some limits that prevented long-term surveillance of US citizens without cause, “until NSPM-7”, an anonymous intelligence official working for the TSC told Klippenstein. The official later said “It might not be immediate, how the FBI creates the protocols and rules to create a whole new category of people to watchlist. But… they will look to the TSC to internally organize and administer the new category of threats”. According to the anonymous official, the NSPM-7 was the driving force of this massive expansion (“Secretive Watchlisting”). It is not clear how much of this expansion has yet occurred in practice.
The new FBI budget request to Congress clearly follows the footprint of NSPM-7, sometimes quoting directly from it, and in particular, uses the same language I quoted above for the viewpoints considered dangerous. It funds the creation of a new unit known as the NSPM-7 Joint Mission Center (JMC) and focuses on people who may have “violent conduct” connected to the above views. It also calls out “domestic terrorists exploit[ing] a variety of popular social media platforms, smaller websites with targeted audiences, and encrypted chat applications” as particular areas of concern for investigations.
However, the primary area of concern comes from the ending language saying that it would “proactively identify networks and prosecute domestic terrorist and related criminal actors”. “Proactively” would suggest that this could be prosecutions based on suspected future activity, rather than anything that has been committed. Without an actual action taken, it is entirely possible to catch someone in this who is not and would never be a violent criminal. This is especially concerning when you remember that an intelligence official already said that the NSPM-7 authorized them to bypass typical rules on surveillance of Americans without cause.
Talking about the specific categories of people under surveillance, there have been concerns raised that trans people would be particular targets, due to the language about “extremism on gender” and popular beliefs that trans people commit violence at higher rates (there is no evidence that this is true). However, others have been concerned that this would primarily target people with large left-wing followings on social media, such as Hassan Piker, given the call-out of social media influence. The anonymous official has additionally confirmed that Muslim people are disproportionately under surveillance. It is quite likely that all of these groups are of particular concern under this new plan; this list is likely not complete, either. Ultimately, it’s not clear how this would be applied until it happens, though by that point it may be too late for those caught up in it.
All of this said, it is important to know that, while the JMC and the TSC do currently exist, this is still a funding request. They do not have the funding to expand these operations as planned. There could be a push from Congress to not fund these proposals. Additionally, this is a request for fiscal year 2027, which starts in April 2027 on the calendar. Even if it is initially passed, there would be time to remove that funding after the midterms. This story is ongoing, and if you are not in support of this request, call your representatives and senators, and vote for those in the midterm who will not support this request. There is time where this can be stopped.