In this op-ed, Cindy L. Otis — who served as an intelligence analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency from 2007 to 2017 — details the definition of "terrorism" and how it applies to the car attack at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

On Saturday, a driver aimed for a crowd of peaceful counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one and injuring 19 others, in what police are calling a premeditated attack. There is a lot we still don’t know about the suspect, who was arrested, but one thing is certain: This was an act of terrorism.

In every way, this attack meets the legal definition of terrorism used by all 17 members of the U.S. intelligence community; they define it as a “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents.” The CIA’s National Strategy for Combatting Terrorism states that terrorists “strive to subvert the rule of law and effect change through violence and fear.”

Many Democrats and Republicans were quick to call the event a domestic terrorist attack, with one notable exception: President Donald Trump.

In his first public statement, shortly after the attack, Trump said, “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence, on many sides. On many sides." He left the room when a reporter asked him about the white nationalists who call themselves his supporters.

Nowhere in his statement or in tweets sent out that day did he call out white nationalists who organized the event, even though Trump’s advisers later insisted that was implied. The founder of the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, praised Trump’s initial statement, saying, “He didn’t attack us. . . . No condemnation at all.”

It was only after two days of serious public blowback that Trump finally made another statement denouncing the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and “other hate groups,” on August 14, saying that “racism is evil.” He has yet to call the attack on counterprotesters an act of terrorism.

This isn’t the first time Trump’s comments on white supremacists have come under fire. During the 2016 presidential campaign, he danced around questions about support from David Duke, the former KKK grand wizard. After public blowback for not disavowing Duke, Trump said he hadn’t heard the question.

There is a larger dangerous trend in the media and among leaders who ignore attacks perpetrated by white suspects. According to Foreign Policy, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security reportedly warned the White House in May that white supremacist groups had carried out more attacks than any other domestic extremist group since 2001 and the agencies assessed that these groups would continue to conduct attacks. In June, the Trump administration cut federal funding for a group that helps people leave white supremacist groups.

Trump was quick to call it terrorism when three men drove a van into a crowd on London Bridge earlier this year, using it to justify his travel ban, but he has remained silent on multiple domestic and international attacks against Muslims. It’s a double standard that poses a security risk to this country.

That white supremacists and white nationalists held a demonstration like this in Charlottesville in the first place is evidence they are comfortable operating openly in a country that elected Trump. Despite periodic claims that he wants a unified country, Trump has only sowed seeds of dissent, from his divisive statements against immigrants to his ongoing political rallies, which fuel hate for minorities within his political base.