Washington DC - President Donald Trump signed a memorandum vowing to crack down on what he termed a radical left "terror network," which he accused of trying to "silence opposing speech."

Trump gathered in the Oval Office alongside Vice President JD Vance and other senior administration officials to sign a memorandum that the White House touted as a "game-changing strategy" to tackle political violence.

The memorandum claimed that recent political violence is "a culmination of sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation, radicalization, threats, and violence designed to silence opposing speech."

It directed the National Joint Terrorism Task Force to "investigate, prosecute, and disrupt entities and individuals engaged in acts of political violence and intimidation."

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Less than a week after Trump designated Antifa – a loose, decentralized movement of anti-fascist groups and activists – as a "terrorist" group, the memorandum vowed to go after so-called "Domestic Terrorist Organizations."

During the press conference, far-right White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller explicitly identified the political left writ large as a target of the memorandum.

"This is the first time in American history that there is an all-of-government effort to dismantle left wing terrorism, to dismantle Antifa," Miller said.

"This is part of an organized campaign of radical left terrorism. It is structured. It is well funded. It is well planned. There is really no parallel like this."

Organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as numerous political figures and commentators condemned the memorandum and expressed concerns that it is the next step in a crackdown on dissent.

In a statement on Instagram, the ACLU called the memo a "thinly veiled attempt to create a nonexistent conspiracy out of activists, nonprofits, and others pursuing equality and fairness far all."