Experts question how Trump will achieve this, saying Antifa is more of a concept than an organization with headquarters and leadership structures.
Trump targets the antifa movement as a “terrorist organization”
President Donald Trump signaled new actions against left-wing groups and targeted the anti-fascist antifa movement as a “terrorist organization.”
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump says he has “designated” ANTIFA as a major terrorist organization following the September 10th murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
But what is the anti-fascist movement? And what does Trump mean, which designates a terrorist organization?
Authorities have not confirmed any direct links between Kirk’s defendant murderer, Tyler James Robinson, and ANTIFA. This is a broader political concept than a real organization with members, leadership, or a headquarters that can be targeted.
But Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondy, and other administration officials have repeatedly denounced the left-leaning group that stirs up hostility towards conservatives who say they have helped Kirk assassinate him. The investigation is ongoing, but authorities say Robinson expressed his anti-fascist view and said he killed Kirk. “His hatred was enough.” (Many on the left focuses on Kirk’s statements, such as lamenting the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and calling trans people “the throbbing middle finger to God.”)
Trump supporters praised his move. But critics, including former terrorist officials and extremist experts, said it was an effort to undermine the actions of groups opposing the president.
What is Antifa?
According to the Parliamentary Research Service, “ANTIFA” refers to individuals who “see themselves as part of the protest tradition that “returns to Nazi Germany and fascist Italian opposition groups before World War II.”
The CRS, the independent research arm of Congress, said in a June 2020 report that “the antifa movement in the United States is decentralized and consists of independent, radical, like-minded groups and individuals.”
Antifa’s doctrine can “reflect the principles of anarchism, socialism and communism,” the CRS report said that supporters could also support a wide range of other causes. These include “environmentalism, indigenous rights, gay rights.”
Wide range of tactics and targets
Antifa’s tactics are broadly diverse, including peaceful protest, organisation, information campaigns, mutual aid, and more conflicting and sometimes illegal direct actions. This includes setting up a fire, damage to property, and physically facing or attacking law enforcement.
In the United States, much of the ANTIFA activities are “mutual radicalization at the micro level” in which protesters on the left engage in violent clashes between the right and the right extremists, sometimes engaged in violent clashes, according to a November 2021 report by the George Washington University’s Program on Extremists.
In the 1980s, the ANTIFA group was mobilizing mostly against the activities of the head of racism, members of Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis.
Founded in 2007, Rose City Antifa in Portland, Oregon, is the oldest group in the United States to use “Antifa” in Monica, according to CRS.
Violence is “past in comparison” with other extremists
The ANTIFA group became particularly prominent in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017, after a violent clash between white supremacists and enemies, including ANTIFA activists.
“Specific indicators such as human casualties and frequency of attacks make violence committed by actors paler than other categories of violent extremists in the last decade,” says GWU report, “Left wing” left-wing in “Anarchist/Rectrent owing.”
“Nevertheless, this dynamic has become a subject of change, and the ongoing trends in American society could lead to an increase in the frequency and lethality of (Antifa) attacks,” the report states.
What did Trump do to Antifa?
In a September 17 post on his true social platform, Trump said:
“I am pleased to inform many American patriots that I have designated Antifa, a diseased, dangerous, radical leftist disaster, as a major terrorist organization.”
Trump also said he strongly recommends “examine ANTIFA in a thorough manner following the highest legal standards and practices.”
The president expressed his support for designating ANTIFA as a domestic terrorist organization earlier in the week, urging the House of Representatives to promote laws made by conservative Republican lawmakers.
Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who introduced the law on January 9th, announced on September 11 that she “full support my bill to designate ANTIFA as a terrorist organization.”
Luna’s law cites multiple cases of violence allegedly committed or incited by ANTIFAs across the United States, including the riots of the summer 2020 after George Floyd’s death, citing that she was billions of dollars in damage and assault by law enforcement officials.
According to Luna’s bill, in May 2020, the Justice Department labeled antifa violence as domestic terrorism.
can Will Trump actually designate Antifa as a terrorist organization?
Trump’s social media posts aren’t clear what legal designations he has in mind. If a group like Hamas is labelled as a foreign terrorist organization, the government can make it a crime to freeze its assets and provide material support such as money to the group.
Javed Ali, a former US anti-terrorism official, told USA Today it was unclear whether Trump’s statement was rhetorical or if he actually had a legal or policy foundation behind it.
The only list of designated terrorist groups maintained by the US government are foreign terrorist organizations managed by the State Department. And under US law, Ali said that groups considered foreign terrorist organizations must “be based overseas and engage in terrorist attacks on US interests.”
The extremist GWU programme focuses on “the ineffectiveness of designating domestic ideological movements as foreign terrorist organizations.”
The FBI “defines domestic terrorism as an act of illegal violence committed within the country by individuals or groups without foreign orientation, and appears to be intended to intimidate or enforce civilians, or to influence government policies through intimidation or coercion,” the CRS says. Those who hold the loose definition of ANTIFA of the US government, including anarchists, and other violent extremist ideologies on the left meet the definition of “domestic terrorism.”
The FBI has confirmed that ANTIFA and related groups are subject to ongoing domestic terrorism investigations. However, the agency does not designate “domestic terrorist organizations.” That’s because federal law only includes ways to designate foreign terrorist organizations.
According to a Harvard University review, the May 2023 report does not have legal authority comparable to national groups. The CRS also said, “In doing so could violate the First Amendment-protected Freedom of Speech, which is not a crime in itself in the United States.”
Aside from the possibility of designating foreign terrorist organizations against Alifa, Ali said the Trump administration may be considering ways to achieve the same outcome through executive orders.
