The only criterion that matters for President Donald Trump’s next attorney general is whether he or she will go after domestic terrorists such as Antifa and the participants in the attempted palace coup of the Russia collusion hoax. Those are two glaring areas in which outgoing Attorney General Pam Bondi fell well short of the mandate demonstrated by Trump’s win in 2024, and her successor needs to be unapologetic about pursuing justice in both cases.
As The Federalist CEO Sean Davis noted, “Trump’s next AG needs to be ruthlessly efficient at inflicting maximum legal violence against the left-wing terrorists, hoaxers, and coup plotters who are actively attempting to destroy this nation and anyone who defends it.” In fact, lack of action from Bondi on these issues is reportedly one of the reasons Trump fired her Thursday.
Former President Joe Biden had a honey badger in Merrick Garland, who ruthlessly and unjustly used lawfare to jail the political enemies of the administration, including Trump, pro-life Americans praying outside abortion mills, parents (or, as Garland called them, “domestic terrorists”) concerned about the propaganda being fed to their children in public schools, January 6 rioters, those concerned with election integrity, to name a few. Garland’s abuses of power significantly damaged the office of attorney general, so the next attorney general has the opportunity to bring legitimacy back by righting those wrongs in an unwavering fashion.
Even after Trump signed an executive order designating the violent international group Antifa a domestic terrorist organization, there have been very few indictments, arrests, and other legal action taken against the thousands who have been wreaking havoc on the United States for the better part of a decade.
The opportunities to lock these terrorists up have been numerous, but 2026 alone started off with a genuine insurrection and terrorist obstruction of immigration law enforcement in Minneapolis — complete with riots, stealing FBI weapons, attempted killing of immigration agents, and much more — but barely anyone was arrested. Even the few arrested were instantly let off the hook, never to be heard of again.
The current Department of Justice (DOJ) is proud of itself for convicting a measly nine Antifa members. That dynamic cannot continue. Thousands of such individuals have pledged violent overthrow of American law and institutions, and it is imperative that DOJ acts like it under new leadership. As my colleague Joshua Monnington noted, “we need a J6-level manhunt for everyone who obstructs immigration law enforcement … not in its corrupt politicization, but in its scale and effectiveness.”
That means investigating Antifa and the hundreds of similar organizations, tracking their funding networks back to billionaire agitators such as George Soros, securing indictments and convictions, and sending them all to prison. And don’t forget investigating and prosecuting the potential networks behind the assassins who targeted Charlie Kirk and President Trump.
The next AG’s measure of success will be how many leftist terrorists, rioters, and coup-plotters get thrown in prison. The American people will know a dent has been made when the Bureau of Prisons is forced to ask Congress for a funding supplemental in order to handle the overcrowding from the number of new domestic terrorist inmates.
Countless Democrat coup attempts also need to be rectified, starting with the Russia collusion hoax invented by the Obama administration and lackeys including former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan, former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. That hoax effectively stole an entire presidency from a sitting president, but more importantly from the American people who voted for him.
Leftists in government actually stole two successive presidencies from the American people, by also covering up Biden’s mental decline and allowing him to “govern” through autopen, or, more accurately, through unelected staff. The new attorney general will be responsible for sending the message that justice is back, and that attempts to overthrow the American government — whether by Antifa or Brennan and Clapper — will meet with the most severe punishments allowed under American law.
Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. As an investigative journalist, he previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.
