'Lone actor' attacks keep happening. Trump is dismantling the office that helps spot them

USA Today

6 hours ago

'Lone actor' attacks keep happening. Trump is dismantling the office that helps spot them The day before a violent political attack in Minnesota, the last top officials at a program that aims to spot so-called 'lone actor' violent domestic extremists were reassigned to other roles.
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Suspect charged in 'targeted' shootings of Minnesota lawmakers
Vance Boelter faces six charges, including murder and stalking, after he allegedly "targeted" two Minnesota lawmakers at their homes.
Just as politically motivated attacks by so-called "lone actors" surge across the country, the administration of President Donald Trump is dismantling the very office that oversees efforts to identify and stop such violent extremists before they strike.
In the four months since Trump took office, his administration has shrunk the Department of Homeland Security's Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, or CP3, from dozens of analysts and supervisors to fewer than 10 people, led by a 22-year-old recent graduate with no law enforcement or homeland security experience.
Indeed, less than 24 hours before a man shot two Minnesota legislators and their spouses, killing one couple and critically injuring the other, the CP3 office reassigned the last of its senior advisors, said Bill Braniff, who used to lead the center but quit in protest in March.
'The office is being incrementally dismantled,' said Braniff, who is now executive director of the Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University. 'They explicitly say that they're terminating the office – it's not like this is innuendo.'
In a statement, a DHS official pushed back on claims that dismantling the CP3 program is putting American lives at risk, saying it "plays an insignificant and ineffective role in the broader efforts."
"The Department of Homeland Security has a robust counterterrorism program," the official said in a statement. "Unfortunately, under the Biden administration, CP3​ was weaponized against political opponents and its main purpose was to funnel money to progressive groups. It should be no surprise to anyone that the Trump Administration is making a diligent effort to end waste, fraud, and abuse – this office is just another example.'
DHS did not respond to detailed questions about the program and its effectiveness. National security experts, including one who ran counter-terrorism efforts under Trump in his first term, told USA TODAY the dismantling of the CP3 office is dangerous and counter-productive, especially given the steady drumbeat of politically motivated killings that has marked the first half of 2025.
'This is the destruction of our prevention infrastructure," said Jacob Ware, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of 'God, Guns and Sedition: Far-Right Extremism in America.'
'Really the best way that we have to to counter lone actor terrorism is through 'See something, say something' programs,' Ware said. 'If you're going to cut funding to all the great organizations in our country who work day-to-day to prevent violence in their communities, and you're going to redirect resources away from law enforcement, then the only way that we have to counter lone actor terrorism is not going to work.'
According to CP3's annual report last year, between 2020 and 2023, 17 different programs opened more than 1,100 inquiries into individuals who were 'exhibiting behavioral indicators associated with the pathway to violence.' Of those, more than 70% of cases were referred to mental health professionals for counselling, but 77 were sent to law enforcement for a potential criminal investigation.
The report lays out several case studies of potential violent extremists who were identified through programs funded by CP3, including a student who brought weapons to school and a parent who reported her child's fascination with violent extremism. The student received counseling while the child was later investigated by the FBI.
'Lone actor' incidents are hard to predict
Among experts in domestic terrorism and homeland security, attacks like the shootings in Minnesota over the weekend are known as 'lone actor' incidents. They're incredibly difficult for law enforcement to predict or disrupt.
Lone actors usually don't advertise their intentions. They don't typically publish 'manifestos' laying out their gripes and conspiracies until during or after their crimes. They tend not to be members of organized groups that are on the radar of law enforcement. Instead, they quietly hoard weapons, scope out sites and research their victims.
Quite often, however, lone actors do send signals of a coming attack – they say suspicious things to family, friends or colleagues. The suspect in last weekend's shootings, for example, sent a friend an eerie text message, saying he may be dead soon.
For more than a decade, programs have existed across the country that help communities – everyone from school teachers to workplace managers to local police officers – spot the warning signs that a terrorist is about to strike. Groups long ago set up 'See something, say something' hotlines for concerned citizens to call and report suspicious activity.
These programs – essentially the only weapon in the government's arsenal to prevent random acts of political violence – have long received funding from CP3, which is now being shuttered.
That's happening amidst a surge in lone actor domestic terrorism. The Minnesota shootings were just the latest in a series of deadly politically motivated attacks – from both extremes of the political spectrum. Since the beginning of the year, lone attackers have set fire to a governor's mansion in Pennsylvania, shot and killed a young Jewish couple in Washington, D.C. and firebombed a pro-Israel march in Boulder, Colorado.
Braniff and others are quick to stress the programs overseen by CP3 aren't a panacea.
There's no guarantee that concerned friends, neighbors or colleagues will call the hotlines funded by the center. But given the immense difficulty in preventing lone actor attacks, those programs are at least one effective tool, and they're being junked by the federal government under Trump.
'A political football'
The office currently known as 'CP3' has had various iterations over the years, and has seldom been short of controversy.
During the first Trump term, in early 2017, the administration decided unilaterally to pull $10 million of Congressionally approved funding from what was then known as the 'Countering Violent Extremism' program. Arguing that organizations like the Heartland Democracy Center, which sets up counseling groups for kids at risk of radicalization, were biased against conservatives, the administration froze grants that had been approved for anti-extremism efforts.
Reborn as CP3 under President Joe Biden, the center grew to a staff of more than 70 people at its height, Braniff said. But when Trump was reelected, the office immediately began to shed staff. A 22-year old recent graduate with no experience of extremism prevention programs was appointed to run the center earlier this year. In March, Braniff quit.
'This office has been a political football,' Braniff said.
For a decade, efforts like those run under CP3 have been an essential tool in the fight against domestic terrorism, said Javed Ali, senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council in 2017 and 2018 under Trump.
Crucially, these attackers come from all sides of the political spectrum, Ali said.
'There is a large pool of people in this country who are highly radicalized for whatever reasons, but they are not all swimming in the same ideological sea,' Ali said. 'These are all people who are flying under the radar, but are very angry, and on their own timeline they decide now is the moment to conduct an attack.'
Time to regroup
The programs supported by CP3 don't just aim to identify possible lone actors. They also help to wean people away from extremist groups through counseling, according to the agency's annual report, which highlighted several counseling programs.
And at the same time the Trump administration is dismantling the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, researchers who monitor such groups worry that far-right groups in particular are taking the opportunity to rebuild.
The leaders of the two most well-known far-right extremist groups, the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, were both convicted of seditious conspiracy for their roles in the Jan. 6 insurrection. Both men were pardoned by President Trump and have vowed to rebuild and revamp their organizations.
Ware said the Jan. 6 pardons sent a clear message to Americans who are willing to engage in political violence: As long as it is directed towards the political left, or opponents of President Trump, it will be tolerated, if not encouraged, he said.
'I would not just say Trump is ignoring the far right, I would say he's actively sending messages that the violence is tolerable – violence is accepted – violence is legal and legitimate, as long as it's perpetrated on our behalf,' Ware said. 'And that is catastrophic from a messaging standpoint.'
Colin P. Clarke, director of research at the Soufan Group, a global intelligence consultancy, agreed.
'In the longer term, groups like the Oath Keepers, these guys can now spend the next four years stockpiling – training, commiserating – without any concern,' Clarke said. 'And so what you get at the end of this is you have far more robust militia groups and other violent extremists that have just had free rein to rebuild their organizations.'