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Trump Is Using Terrorist Charges to Wage Political War

Josh Kovensky on a dangerous politicization of the law.

Jeet Heer

February 8, 2026

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Trump is Using Terrorist Charges to Wage Political War w/ Josh Kovensky | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
byThe Nation Magazine

Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Kovensky has written an essay on the Trump

administration’s use of anti-terrorism law to target political groups it doesn’t like.

In that piece, Kovensky notes,

"Across the country, federal prosecutors are upgrading what would have been routine

prosecutions into terrorism cases when they involve people President Trump has cast as his

political enemies.

It represents a dramatic departure from how the Justice Department has historically used the

federal material support for terrorism statute. For decades, counterterrorism prosecutors have

largely reserved the statute — 2339A — for the kinds of audacious plots that wreak real, lasting

damage or whose ambition forms the stuff of movie screenplays."

I spoke to Kovensky about his essay and the history and politics of this dangerous legal

innovation.

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Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Kovensky has written an article on the Trump administration’s use of anti-terrorism law to target political groups it doesn’t like.

In that piece, Kovensky notes, “Across the country, federal prosecutors are upgrading what would have been routine prosecutions into terrorism cases when they involve people President Trump has cast as his political enemies. It represents a dramatic departure from how the Justice Department has historically used the federal material support for terrorism statute. For decades, counterterrorism prosecutors have largely reserved the statute—2339A—for the kinds of audacious plots that wreak real, lasting damage or whose ambition forms the stuff of movie screenplays.”

I spoke to Kovensky about his essay as well as the history and politics of this dangerous legal innovation.

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The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

The Crackdown in Bahrain w/ Aamer | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
byThe Nation Magazine

The US/Israel war against Iran is not only a conflict between states but also within states. This is most visible in Gulf states such as Bahrain, which are technically US allies but where wide swaths of the population are against the war. The new website North South Notes published an enlightening article on this topic by Kareema Abbas and Aamer (two writers who are working under pseudonyms). I spoke with Aamer about the crackdown on dissent in Bahrain as well as the wider regional politics that have been enflamed by the war.

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Jeet HeerTwitterJeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column “Morbid Symptoms.” The author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman (2013) and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles (2014), Heer has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The GuardianThe New Republic, and The Boston Globe.


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