A group of concerned booksellers recently sent an open letter to the American Booksellers Association and the American Booksellers for Free Expression raising an “urgent concern” about the Trump administration’s NSPM-7 anti-antifascist memorandum. The presidential security memo issued last year specifically targets what the regime sees as leftist ideas in books, zines, and other publications, which is a major concern for all of us that care about books and freedom of expression.

“As we continue opposing book bans and other legislative challenges,” the letter says, “we must also prepare for the potential criminalization of those in our industry.”

The letter was written and signed by Firestorm Books in Asheville, NC, Autumn Leaves Books in Ithaca, NY, Boneshaker Books and Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis, MN, Burning Books in Buffalo, NY, Charis Books & More in Decatur, GA, Pilsen Community Books in Chicago, IL, and Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria in New York, NY.

“Bullies thrive in an environment of silence and isolation,” the letter continues, urging national bookselling organizations to take stronger and more public stances against national and local attempts to criminalize free speech.

The letter is raising the alarm specifically over NSPM-7 , a Trump administration memo issued on September 25, 2025 in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder. The memo is a naked attack on freedom of expression and freedom of thought, justified by waving the bloody shirt of allegedly rampant violence.

Titled “National Security Presidential Memorandum-7: Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence”, the memo attempts to ground its argument by gathering unrelated incidents of political violence, protest, and activism under one overly-broad and hazily defined umbrella of surging left-wing violence. These incidents, the state erroneously claims, are all connected somehow, as “a culmination of sophisticated, organized campaigns” by “domestic terrorists to wage a violent assault against democratic institutions, constitutional rights, and fundamental American liberties.” There is no evidence presented of who is coordinating this, how they are doing it, or why.

The memo lumps all of these “assaults” under its own definition of “anti-fascism,” which it unironically equates with anti-Americanism:

Common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.