The Trump administration is reportedly planning to classify specific transgender suspects as “violent extremists,” according to journalist Ken Klippenstein. Writing on his Substack, Klippenstein said two national security officials told him that the FBI intends to treat transgender suspects as a subset of the Bureau’s newly created “Nihilistic Violent Extremists” (NVE) category.
The NVE designation was created earlier this year to replace the Biden-era label “Anti-Authority and Anti-Government Violent Extremists” (AGAAVE), which had been used to categorize participants in the January 6 Capitol riot and other right-wing or anti-government groups.
Klippenstein reports the new classification “gives Trump officials political cover.” Rather than labeling transgender people broadly as an “enemy,” the administration appears focused on targeting those it deems engaged in so-called “gender ideology extremism.”
It remains unclear what qualifies as “gender ideology extremism,” or how law enforcement would distinguish between transgender people advocating for civil rights and those allegedly driven to violence by such beliefs.
A senior intelligence official told Klippenstein the FBI is “cynically targeting trans people because the shooter’s lover was trans,” adding: “The administration has convinced itself that the Charlie Kirk murder exposes some dark conspiracy.”
The official said there is no formal process for treating transgender people as a “threat group,” but predicted they will be increasingly targeted — and likely surveilled — under the banner of “violent extremism.”
Conservatives have increasingly tried to link mass violence to transgender identity, arguing that transgender people are mentally ill and commit disproportionate acts of violence — a belief that has even led some in the Trump administration to suggest restricting their access to firearms.
Prosecutors in the case against Tyler Robinson, the alleged killer of Charlie Kirk, have emphasized that Robinson was motivated by Kirk’s rejection of transgender identity, with the indictment referencing transgender-related topics at least three times, Klippenstein reports.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the Bureau is reviewing Robinson’s entire network of contacts — far beyond the 20 people in his Discord group — suggesting that other transgender individuals, including Robinson’s alleged partner, may be surveilled under suspicion of prior knowledge of the plot to kill Kirk.
In his second term, Trump has escalated attacks on transgender people, barring them from military service, restricting school and prison policies, and denying funding to groups that “promote gender ideology.”
Two days before Kirk’s killing, Trump railed against “transgender insanity.” Afterward, he blamed “radicals on the left,” saying, “they want transgender for everyone.”
As journalist Erin Reed noted on her Erin in the MorningSubstack, within hours of Klippenstein’s report the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project released a four-page memo urging the FBI to go further. The organization also launched a petition seeking public support for its proposal.
Under the proposal, the FBI would formally classify all forms of transgender activism as “Trans Ideology-Inspired Violent Extremism” (TIVE), a move Heritage argues would let the Bureau “employ investigative techniques” to prevent violence.
Heritage argues the FBI’s “Nihilistic Violent Extremists” label is overly broad and “flawed,” claiming transgender extremists are not motivated by nihilism or a lack of ideology.
The Heritage memo defines “Trans Ideology-Inspired Violent Extremism” as the belief that violence is justified against anyone who opposes, rejects, or is indifferent to “transgender ideology,” which it describes as rejecting the idea that sex is binary and fixed at birth, based on biological characteristics.
The memo further claims that “trans-inspired violent extremism” includes the belief that rejecting or failing to support “transgender ideology” is itself a form of violence, a threat to transgender people’s existence, or an “imminent threat” to their safety — including risks of self-harm or suicide.
Much of the rhetoric used to oppose anti-trans legislation or executive orders echoes language Heritage wants the FBI to treat as terroristic — even as the group insists people would remain “free to identify as transgender, or support LGBT causes or transgenderism in a nonviolent way.”
Reed warns that under Heritage’s proposed two-prong test, “nearly every transgender rights activist or organization — merely for pointing out the tangible harm that comes from losing rights — would fall under the label of extremist.”
In its memo, Heritage suggests the FBI could deploy tools such as human sources, network mapping, undercover operations, and data analysis to monitor alleged extremists. The group even cites examples of “extremist” symbols or terms, including the transgender flag with the phrase “Protect their right to exist,” or words like “cisgender,” “deadnaming,” “misgendering,” “right to exist,” and “erased.”
Reed says this framework would effectively allow the government to treat transgender-rights leaders and organizations as security threats, casting constitutionally protected advocacy as extremism.
If the FBI adopted such a category and relied on Heritage’s flagged language, activists, allies, journalists, and progressive media outlets could be targeted for supposedly “extremist” rhetoric.
Reed likened Heritage’s proposal to Russia’s anti-LGBTQ policies, noting the Trump administration has already floated similar plans to dismantle nonprofits it views as ideological opponents.
Reed stressed that while neither proposal has been implemented, Heritage wields significant influence in the Trump administration, making a crackdown “more than theoretical.” She warned that even without labeling every trans person a terrorist, the proposals create machinery for surveillance and disruption — “tools that echo some of the darkest chapters of American history.”
Mi SELA, an LGBTQ youth center in Bell, California, has faced repeated vandalism that advocates link to a climate of hate fueled by the Trump administration.
An LGBTQ resource center in Los Angeles has been repeatedly targeted by an unknown vandal tossing bags of dog feces, many of which land on the building’s front entrance ledge.
The center, Mi SELA -- a partnership between the Los Angeles LGBT Center and the Latino Equality Alliance, now approaching its second anniversary -- said the vandalism began in recent months.
"This senseless harassment is abhorrent and unacceptable," the Latino Equality Alliance said in a statement. "In 2025, it is shocking that young people and community organizations continue to face such targeted hate and intimidation."
Reports that the person who fatally shot conservative activist Charlie Kirk had left behind bullet casings engraved with phrases espousing "transgender ideology" have been debunked.
The rumor spread quickly after conservative commentator Steven Crowder posted to X on the morning of September 11 -- the day after the shooting -- claiming he had received an email from a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives officer describing such engravings.
Crowder shared what he said was an email from an ATF officer claiming investigators had recovered the weapon used in Kirk's killing, with one spent cartridge in the chamber and three rounds still in the magazine. The email further alleged the cartridges were engraved with "transgender and anti-fascist ideology."
A D.C. grand jury has refused to indict local resident Sean Charles Dunn, 37, who was dubbed the "Sandwich Guy" after he threw a Subway sandwich at a federal officer during a Trump-era law enforcement deployment near 14th and U Streets NW.
A familiar face in the District’s LGBTQ nightlife scene, Dunn had been charged with felony assault on a federal agent.
Video from the incident shows Dunn yelling at the officer, calling him and his colleagues "fascists" and shouting, "I don't want you in my city!" He then hurled his sandwich at the officer and tried to run, but was arrested and charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office on August 13 with felony assault, a charge carrying up to eight years in prison.
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