Under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program (TVTP) Grant Program, colleges and universities are provided funds to “establish or enhance capabilities to prevent targeted violence and terrorism.” So far, under the Biden administration, the DHS has awarded nearly $40 million under the TVTP program, with individual grantees receiving amounts between $85,000 and $1.19 million. The program began under former President Barack Obama with a 12-page plan called “Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States,” but has been redirected under the Biden administration to focus on domestic extremism. Under the Trump administration, the program was frozen in 2017, but re-launched in 2020 through the DHS’s Office of Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention. After Biden took office, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas overhauled and rebranded the office as the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3) with a newly-stated focus of combating “domestic violent extremism, including violent white supremacy,” MRC reported. Mayorkas called the program a “high priority” in a memo obtained by MRC. The University of Dayton was granted $352,109 to establish its PREVENTS-OH program, which pledged to leverage the expertise of faculty to fight domestic extremism and hate movements, according to MRC. One of the first events held was a 2021 seminar that featured “extremism experts” who attempted to tie conservatives, Christians, and Republicans to genocide and terrorism. During the seminar was displayed what presenters called a “Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization,” suggesting that conservative organizations like the Heritage Foundation, Breitbart News, and the Christian Broadcasting Network were a gateway to racist and extremist ideologies. MRC says this chart was included in the original grant application submitted to secure TVTP funding. "This terrorism task force is engaged in an active effort to demonize and eliminate Christian, conservative, and Republican organizations using federal taxpayer dollars," Brent Bozell, founder and president of the MRC, told Fox News. "What we have uncovered calls for criminal prosecution. The American people need to know those who are abusing their positions in the federal government will be held accountable for their criminal behavior." University of Cincinnati researcher Michael Loadenthal participated in the pyramid seminar, as well as a separate workshop on white nationalism, complaining about “right-wing” social media platforms allowing free speech. He offered advice on how to create fake accounts on sites like Gab, Telegram, and Rumble to “paralyze” movements and manufacture infighting. At one point during his presentation, Loadenthal admitted that “a lot of things we’re doing are illegal” and that “a lot of it involves breaking the law.” “The Biden administration has a clear pattern of using taxpayer dollars to attack its political opponents, be it through the Disinformation Government Board, targeting parents as terrorists, funding the Global Disinformation Index censorship machine, and now the DHS’s TVTP program,” MRC added in the report. The organization also promised to present more information it has obtained about the initiatives. The Biden administration has taken a program intended to prevent terrorism and is repurposing it to target Christians, Republicans, and conservatives.
