Trump says he’s designating antifa as a ‘major terrorist organization’. But what does that mean?
President Donald Trump has designated the decentralized antifa movement as a major “domestic terrorist” organization.
The president announced the policy on Truth Social last month while on a state visit to the U.K. The president said he’s also calling for investigations into people believed to be “funding” the movement.
“I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION,” Trump wrote. “I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices.”
Since then, officials have said a key reason behind their campaigns to send federal agents and troops to Portland and Chicago has been to crack down on the group, though local officials have sued and deny there’s any sort of law-and-order crisis in the cities justifying this military-style intervention.
“They beat journalists. They attacked courthouses,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said during an October 8 federal roundtable on antifa. “They attacked police stations. They doxx and assault our law enforcement officers.”
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, a driving force behind the administration’s immigration policy, said earlier this week that ICE officers in these cities have to do “hand-to-hand combat every night” against antifa to leave their facilities, which have attracted regular protests.
Here’s what you need to know about the left-wing movement influencing so much of the president’s agenda.
Antifa, which is short for anti-fascist, is a left-wing movement that lacks a clear hierarchy or organization. Trump’s former FBI director, Christopher Wray, told Congress in 2020 that antifa is “not a group or an organization,” but rather a “movement or an ideology.”
The ADL similarly describes antifa as “a decentralized, leaderless movement composed of loose collections of groups, networks and individuals.” While some extreme actors who claim to be affiliated with antifa have engaged in violence or vandalism, the ADL says that behavior is “not the norm.”
It’s unclear exactly what practical effects this designation could have. The U.S. government does not provide a “precise, comprehensive, and public explanation” of groups it may consider to be domestic terrorist organizations, in part because of free speech concerns, according to a 2023 Congressional Research Service report.
“Listing groups in this way may infringe on First Amendment-protected free speech—or the act of belonging to an ideological group, which in and of itself is not a crime in the United States,” the report says.
The Independent has contacted the White House for more information.
The announcement antifa would be considered a terror group came after right-wing activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at an event on Utah Valley University’s campus in September.
Trump and his allies have since railed against left-wing groups and blamed them for growing hostility against conservatives. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have both vowed to investigate left-leaning organizations in the wake of Kirk’s killing, Bloomberg reports.
