Last week Seb Gorka, the National Security Council senior director for counterterrorism, released the 2026 Counterterrorism Strategy, and by most accounts, it was the kind of report you might expect an eighth grader to draft up the night before it’s due.
It wasn’t so much a strategy, as it was a set of MAGA culture-war talking points. Example? It listed “Violent Left-Wing Extremists” — described as anti-American, radically pro-transgender, anarchist – as a major threat.
Blame Me for the GOP
For decades, I worked as a Republican media consultant. I helped elect Republican governors and Senators in over half the country. I worked in the Bob Dole campaign, the George W. Bush 2000 and 2004 campaigns, and the Mitt Romney campaigns of 2008 and 2012.
Tom Nichols wrote in the Atlantic that, as silly and poorly drafted as this document is, it’s actually leaving all of us less safe.
Andra Watkins agrees that it leaves us less safe, but not for the reasons Nichols outlines. You’ll have to watch this episode of Unholy Ground to find out why this document should keep you up at night.
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