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One year ago, President Donald Trump sat down with over a dozen independent conservative media figures at the White House and made a promise.
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Trump → sign → promise
It was time to get tough, he said, with Antifa and other left-wing organizations fueling violence against conservatives and law enforcement.
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Antifa → get → conservatives
The assassination of Charlie Kirk just weeks earlier weighed heavily on the minds of everyone in the room.
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assassination → weigh → room
The president vowed to prosecute 'Antifa criminals' and all who fund and support their campaigns, sitting with then-Attorney General Pam Bondi on his right and then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on his left.
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who → vow → left
'We have a lot of records already, a lot of surprises, a lot of bad surprises,' Trump announced.
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Trump → have → surprises
The group of independent journalists and influencers had all tangled with the more violent forces of hostile left-wing individuals while reporting on left-wing violence at public protests.
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group → tangle → protests
'I fear that the next one who could be killed could be sitting at this table right now, and we're not going to stop, but they need to stop, and they will not stop until they are stopped,' MAGA media figure Jack Posobiec told the president.
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Posobiec → fear → president
Others in the room stressed that the violent tactics employed by the radical left would only get worse, especially from Antifa, a group of violent activists who loosely organize to confront right-wing political forces.
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who → stress → forces
Journalist Nick Sortor was attacked for trying to rescue an American flag from being burned at a ICE protest in Portland last October and was also targeted by protestors in Minneapolis.
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Sortor → attack → Minneapolis
President Trump held a roundtable with prominent MAGA media figures, joined by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi and then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem in September 2025
Independent journalist Nick Sortor speaks to Trump during a White House roundtable on Antifa, an anti-fascist movement as Jack Posobiec looks on
Turning Point contributor Savanah Hernandez participated in a White House roundtable on Antifa in September
Last September, President Trump signed an executive order to designate Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization.
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Trump → hold → organization
But a year later, many of these figures who sat at the table with the president are wondering what happened to the promised dramatic crackdown.
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what → sit → crackdown
'We all know what it looks like when the federal government goes after somebody, and this was not it,' Posobiec told the Daily Mail in an interview.
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Posobiec → know → interview
The group had watched the Justice Department under then-President Joe Biden lock up January 6 rioters.
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Department → watch → rioters
Dozens of conservative and right-leaning organizations were investigated as federal agents submitted a flurry of subpoenas, sifting through bank records, scoured fundraising data, and seized phone records.
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agents → lean → records
The president's supporters prepared for the federal government to use those same powers to go after the organizational left, but today, they are disappointed.
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they → prepare → left
'I think people were hoping that the Trump administration would use that same power to hold the left criminally responsible, and to hold the same people weaponizing the justice system responsible, and we're not seeing enough of that,' Turning Point USA (TPUSA) contributor and journalist Savanna Hernandez, who also attended the president's roundtable last year, told the Daily Mail.
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who → think → Mail
The lack of public accountability for violent left-wing groups, Hernandez said, was only making the left stronger.
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left → say → groups
'I think the left wing just thinks that they can straight up kill us and then celebrate it, and the DOJ is not taking it seriously,' she said.
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she → think → it
FBI Director Kash Patel has repeatedly condemned left-wing violence and celebrated the news on Fox News that individuals involved with Antifa were being charged and prosecuted.
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individuals → condemn → Antifa
'Antifa exists and it's a terrorist organization,' Patel said on Fox Business in October.
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Patel → exist → October
'People pay for this stuff and we're going to find them, they are equally criminally responsible as those who pull the trigger themselves.
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who → pay → trigger
'
The perceived lack of action on mass deportations and public displays of criminalizing violent leftists could have a political cost for Republicans, a former White House official told the Daily Mail.
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official → perceive → Mail
'The MAGA base needs to be energized if they are going to come out for the midterms,' the officials said.
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officials → need → midterms
'Right now, they just aren't seeing anything to motivate them.'
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they → see → them
Vice President JD Vance hosted an episode of the Charlie Kirk show last year, vowing to dismantle the violent left and the organizations that funded them
A close-up of graffiti reading 'Antifa' is painted in white on the wooden door of a building
Conservative influencer Nick Sortor holds up an American flag recovered from protests in Portland, Oregon
One individual who attended the meeting recalled that Patel followed up afterwards by connecting them with low-level FBI investigators.
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Patel → host → investigators
A source who participated in conversations with the FBI was astounded that the agents involved appeared clueless about what Antifa was and why they viewed the radical left coalition as a threat.
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they → participate → threat
'They didn't even know what Antifa was,' one recalled in an interview with the Daily Mail.
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one → know → Mail
The FBI did not respond to the Daily Mail's request for comment.
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FBI → respond → comment
Some MAGA figures placed blame on Bondi, who was forced out of the Trump administration in April after a series of public missteps.
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who → place → missteps
'Bondi dropped the ball, she didn't drop the hammer,' Posobiec told the Daily Mail, criticizing her approach for being 'reactive not proactive.
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Posobiec → drop → approach
'
Bondi was also accused of botching the federal response to the release of the Epstein files.
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Bondi → accuse → files
'They just weren't up to the task,' Posobiec said.
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Posobiec → say → task
Bondi did not respond to the Daily Mail's request for comment.
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Bondi → respond → comment
The lack of visible accountability for the left, Posobiec said, left figures in the MAGA movement demoralized and even conspiratorial.
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Posobiec → say → movement
'Everyone expected that doors would be kicked in, and when that didn't happen, suddenly people thought there must be something else inside stopping it from happening,' he said.
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he → expect → it
New Attorney General Todd Blanche - who replaced Bondi - is a welcome change, Hernandez and Posobiec said, but they warned that many of the president's supporters had already moved on.
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many → replace → supporters
'I think we're past the point of meeting expectations... voters are just done,' Posobiec said.
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Posobiec → think → expectations
The Justice Department pushed back against complaints, citing the successful prosecutions of Antifa figures involved in the Prairieland ICE facility attack in Texas last year.
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Department → push → Texas
Nine individuals connected to Antifa were prosecuted after they vandalized vehicles, launched fireworks, damaged a guard kiosk, and shot a police officer last July.
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they → connect → officer
They are now serving a combined 450 years in prison, including Benjamin Hanil Song, who was sentenced to 100 years for shooting an ICE agent.
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who → serve → agent
…and 22 more, not listed.
The Aporia
