Remember This from February?

The Trump administration's reported new plan to change a federal program which combats violent "extremism" into a project focused exclusively on "radical Islam" looks like another step toward demonizing Muslims -- while adding to concerns that the administration will actively empower open white supremacist groups.

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Although it is not clear exactly what impact ending the CVE program will have, it may weaken efforts to prevent white supremacist violence before it starts. The best-known CVE program grant that specifically counters the white supremacist movement and may be on the cutting board is Life After Hate. Run by former leaders in the Nazi skinhead movement, it does the vital work of helping people to leave these movements. (Other grants are slated to go to local police departments, city agencies and Muslim organizations.)

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A redirection of priorities away from countering the white supremacist movement is seen as a significant mistake by those who monitor the US far right. Regarding the rumored CVE change, the Southern Poverty Law Center's Heidi Beirich said, "We can only surmise, given that Trump has repeatedly taken cues and talking points from anti-Muslim extremists and that his chief strategist is a champion of the white nationalist movement, that this is a politically motivated decision."

Local police departments may also have qualms with this change. A 2015 poll, funded by the Justice Department, showed that state and local law enforcement thought "anti-government extremism" was almost twice the threat (74 percent vs 39 percent) to their agencies as Islamist terrorism.

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If this change in CVE occurs, the Trump administration will demonstrate that it is not just using approaches borrowed from white supremacists, but is also willing to sit idly by as white supremacist terrorists inflict violence on other Americans.

  TruthOut

Once Trump entered the White House in January, the office of then-DHS Secretary John Kelly ordered a full review of the Countering Violent Extremism program. Kelly’s office wanted to re-vet the groups receiving a portion of the $10 million Congress had appropriated for the program — even though DHS had already publicly announced the grant recipients.

While that review was underway, DHS and the FBI warned in an internal intelligence bulletin of the threat posed by white supremacy. White supremacists “were responsible for 49 homicides in 26 attacks from 2000 to 2016 … more than any other domestic extremist movement,” the two agencies wrote in a May 10 document obtained by Foreign Policy. Members of the white supremacist movement “likely will continue to pose a threat of lethal violence over the next year,” they concluded.

  HuffPo

Just before former President Barack Obama left office, the group Life After Hate, a part of the Obama administration's Countering Violent Extremism program, received $400,000 from the Department of Homeland Security in the form of a grant to fight white supremacy. Shortly after Trump took office his administration pulled that funding, one of the only ones that specifically targeted white supremacy, in favor of a greater focus on "radical Islamic terrorism," according to The Huffington Post.

"They threw the baby out with bathwater. What happens now is that we have to passively wait for people to reach out to us," Life After Hate co-founder Tony McAleer, a former white supremacist, told The Hill.

The group is one of the only organizations in the country that focuses on helping people leave white supremacy groups.

  Newsmax