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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Alice Speri

‘Largely slop’: Trump’s new counter-terrorism strategy is scant on substance but heavy on enemies

A man with a goatee in a suit outside the White House
Sebastian Gorka, Trump’s counter-terrorism ‘czar’, outside the White House on 18 December 2025. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

When Donald Trump’s counter-terrorism “czar”, Sebastian Gorka, introduced the Trump administration’s long-awaited counter-terrorism strategy on a call with journalists on Wednesday, he also reportedly described critics of the administration’s war in Iran as “testicularly challenged”.

The at-times bizarre 16-page memo Gorka authored is only slightly more subtle – taking rhetorically charged swings at the president’s enemies, the Biden administration, transgender people and some Islamist groups, while offering little clarity about the threat posed by political violence domestically or abroad or any specific plans to address it.

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