The Trump administration has taken a more aggressive approach than its predecessor toward addressing the nationwide surge in antisemitic incidents, launching investigations, punishing elite universities, and intensifying its immigration enforcement practices.

President Donald Trump, through his Department of Justice (DOJ) and other agencies, is using law-and-order tactics that his deputies say are necessary, but that critics say could constitute overreach.

Harmeet Dhillon, the DOJ’s assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, told Fox News Digital she has not seen any “close cases” when it comes to weighing antisemitic behavior against First Amendment rights of those who oppose Israel or Judaism.

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“Criticizing the government of Israel is not what I’m typically seeing here,” Dhillon said. “I’m seeing an intifada revolution. I’m seeing blocking Jewish students from crossing campuses and destroying property on campus, which is a crime. … Quiet, polite conversation and disagreement with Israeli policy is not really what’s happening here. It’s literally people saying Israel shouldn’t exist — and bringing the revolution to the United States.” 

Dhillon added that “that type of violent rhetoric has led to violent acts in our country.”

Antisemitic violence

After Hamas’s deadly terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the FBI’s hate crime statistics showed a sharp spike in anti-Jewish incidents in the U.S. The data runs through December 2023.

Anti-Defamation League (ADL) data from 2024 and high-profile incidents this year suggest the trend is continuing.

An Egyptian national in the U.S. illegally in Boulder, Colorado, is facing state and federal charges for allegedly injuring 15 people, including elderly victims and a dog last weekend with Molotov cocktails during a peaceful pro-Israel demonstration in support of hostages being held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

Suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, stated to authorities “he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead,” according to an FBI affidavit. During the attack he allegedly yelled “free Palestine,” the agent said.

In May, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, who worked at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., were gunned down outside the Capitol Jewish Museum in D.C. 

Suspect Elias Rodriguez of Illinois shouted “free Palestine” as he was detained, and Interim U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro said her office is investigating the case as a hate crime and act of terrorism.

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In another incident, a man allegedly set fire to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence on the first night of Passover. Emergency call logs released by local authorities revealed that the suspect, Cody Balmer, invoked Palestine after the arson and blamed Shapiro, who is Jewish, for “having my friends killed.” 

Tarek Bazrouk, who identified himself as a “Jew hater” and said Jewish people were “worthless,” allegedly carried out a series of assaults on Jewish New Yorkers in 2024 and 2025, according to an indictment brought against him in May. 

Bazrouk wore a green headband that mimicked Hamas garb and a keffiyeh during the attacks, and he celebrated Hamas and Hizballah on his social media, according to federal authorities.

Harvard and Columbia

Trump warned in an executive order at the start of his presidency that foreign nationals participating in “pro-jihadist protests” would be deported, and he specifically highlighted college campuses as being “infested with radicalism.”

Unlike the Biden administration, the Trump administration has since gone to war with elite universities, some of which have been roiled by disruptive pro-Palestinian protests that involve occupying academic buildings and installing encampments.

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Harvard and Columbia, in particular, are now engaged in litigation after Trump moved to freeze billions of dollars in federal funding for the universities and ban Harvard’s foreign students.

The embattled schools have been successful in winning temporary pauses to Trump’s sanctions through the courts, but litigation is pending and legal experts have said they face an uphill battle.

Free speech controversies

The Trump administration has zeroed in on non-citizen students and activists who it has accused of supporting Palestinian causes in ways it deems hostile to U.S. interests.

Amid Trump’s pursuit of visa and green card holders, Mahmoud Khalil’s case has become a flashpoint.

Khalil was arrested in March and detained after the administration accused him of violating immigration laws by engaging in anti-Israel activism. 

This week, Khalil said in court papers the administration’s claims against him were “grotesque” and that his activism involved “protesting this Israeli government’s indiscriminate killing of thousands of innocent Palestinians.”

Civil rights groups have warned that the government’s hardliner posture risks violating free speech and protest rights. A coalition of 60 groups issued a joint statement this week on antisemitic hate crimes in which it warned the Trump administration not to over-correct because it would “make us all less safe.”

“As we condemn these heinous [antisemitic] acts and those who perpetrate hate and violence, we also recommit to ensuring that these events — and the legitimate fear in the Jewish community — are not exploited to justify inhumane immigration policies or to target Arab Americans and those who peacefully and nonviolently exercise their First Amendment rights in support of Palestinian human rights,” the groups said.

Dhillon told Fox News Digital: “It’s not my responsibility to balance free speech issues on campus. It’s my responsibility to enforce the federal civil rights laws. And my opinion, there’s really no conflict.”

Antisemitic task force and more

When he took office, Trump vowed in a string of executive orders to direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to “aggressively prosecute terroristic threats, arson, vandalism and violence against American Jews.” 

Trump appointees at the DOJ then moved quickly to convene an antisemitism task force. Dhillon said there is also frequent communication between the White House, the DOJ, and Jewish leaders about addressing antisemitism.

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“We have heard from the Jewish community, and I’ve probably met with — I think there’s at least two dozen rabbis who have my number on speed dial now. I literally sent three emails to rabbis in the last hour,” she said.

She said her division has opened several investigations involving land use for religious purposes under a law known as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), including five related to Judaism. The administration is also notifying Jewish communities of grants available for added security at synagogues, and she said campuses are a “significant focus” for her.

Internal turmoil

After reports surfaced that Dhillon’s shakeup in the Civil Rights Division led to a mass exodus of more than 100 attorneys leaving the division, she told the media she was unfazed by the departures and that her focus remains on launching the division’s work toward combating antisemitism.

Testing the limits of his subordinates and the courts, another top DOJ official, Emil Bove, launched an internal investigation into Columbia student protesters early this year. The probe caused concern among line attorneys, who felt it was flimsy and was also met with multiple reprimands from a magistrate judge, according to the New York Times.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement in May that the New York Times’ story was false and fed to the newspaper “by a group of people who allowed antisemitism and support of Hamas terrorists to fester for years.”

Blanche confirmed the veracity of the investigation and said it involved, in part, a probe into a Hamas-linked image on Columbia University Apartheid Divest’s social media.