The Trump administration is planning to eliminate a terrorism prevention program of the National Security Department that former government officials and experts say it has helped frustrate attacks in the United States. The DHS budget presented to Congress last month cancels the Terrorism Prevention Subsidies Program of $ 18 million, saying that “it is not aligned with the priorities of the DHS.”
“That line must be quoted after each future event of mass victims in this country,” said a current DHS official who refused to be appointed, citing Fear of being fired.
Former DHS officials say they believe that the modest program, which costs approximately 4% of the military marching band budget, has stopped violent attacks. It is designed to prevent a type of terrorism that has become increasingly common: lone wolf attacks of people who are not members of an organized group.
The examples include Firbomb’s recent attack in Boulder, Colorado, about protesters who march in support of Israeli hostages; the murder of a young couple outside the Jewish museum of the Capitol; the murder of 14 people in a New Year attack in New Orleans; and the shooting of a United Medical Care Executive in Manhattan.
“When people say: ‘You can’t prove that prevention does not work,’ I ask them, ‘Are you going to the doctor? Do you have a smoke detector in your home?’ Then you believe in prevention, ”said Bill Braniff, A designated by the Biden Administration that supervised the program as director of the Center for Prevention and Programs of the DHS Prevention Center.
John Cohen, a former DHS contractorism official in Obama and Biden administrations, said the threat is growing. “Why was DHS created? To help the Nation be better prepared to stop terrorist attacks after September 11,” he said. “We have had several school shootings and four terrorist incidents since January, all for people who fit these behavior profiles.”
The White House and the DHS did not respond to the requests for comments.
The program, formally known as the Violence and Terrorism Prevention Subsidies Program, recently drew the scrutiny when Propublic published an article about the Braniff’s successor, a former 22 -year Trump campaign worker without relevant experience.
But the broader problem, experts say, is that the program is focusing. They call it a myopic decision in an era in which alienated lonely attempts attacks of mass violence at a greater frequency than ever.
“Do I know with certainty that we help avoid school shootings and attacks by mass victims? I am 99% sure we help avoid several of them,” said Braniff, who now directs the Polarization Research and Innovation Laboratory and Extremism in the American University.
The interest and demand of the program is high and covers the country. In 2024, DHS reported having received 178 eligible requests from 47 US states and territories. The money finances state and local programs designed to help identify radicalized and potentially violent people. They included school -based threat evaluation equipment, mental health teams and programs designed to inoculate children against extremist messages on social networks.
Specific examples are difficult to mention, partly because many cases are confidential and partly because it is difficult to draw a straight line between a government program and a frustrated attack. But DHS documents cite a 2022 case as an example of how they believe the program helped stop a shooting at school.
After a dissemination campaign in the Palm Beach State College in Florida urging students to be attentive to threats of online violence, a student anonymously informed the authorities on online positions that threaten a mass shooting. Among the publications, according to judicial records, were the threats of committing a “massacre” and an investigation, “who sells an AR-15?”
The authorities arrested and accused a young man, who was finally sentenced to probation and was also subject to a risk protection order, according to the records.
“This is not the time to finish that office,” said Cohen, the former DHS anti -terrorism official. “This is time to expand activities designed to detect emerging threats.”
