The Challenge of Detecting Ideologically Unattached Terrorists

 In the aftermath of the first attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, investigators struggled to identify the perpetrator’s motive. Why did he do it? Despite exhaustive searches of the shooter’s residence, vehicle, and electronics, no evidence surfaced in the weeks after the shooting that would conclusively answer this critical question.1 This apparent lack of motive raises important questions about acts of terrorism in which the perpetrator’s ideological motivation is unknown or nonexistent and, consequently, how terrorists without an ideology may evade the attention of law enforcement and therefore be harder to catch.