Trump Gives Antifa Confusing New Designation
By: Edith Olmsted (The New Republic)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Donald Trump's latest attack makes no sense.
President Donald Trump announced that he would designate antifa as a domestic terrorist organization—but not only do anti-fascists not commit nearly as much political violence as the far right, they're not even an organization. Oh yeah, and Trump's move is illegal.
"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 on Truth Social Wednesday night. "I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices."
But antifa, which is short for "anti-fascist," is a movement, not a group. The so-called organization lacks a central structure and is instead a loose network of individuals and groups who act separately under the banner of opposing facism.
In May 2020, Trump announced that he would designate antifa as a terrorist organization, and Attorney General Bill Barr warned he would treat violence from group members as domestic terrorism. But in September 2020, FBI Director Chris Wray told Congress that antifa was an ideology, not a group or organization, earning him an earful from Trump.
Crucially, the president lacks the legal authority to designate antifa as a terrorist organization. Congress previously granted the secretary of state the power to designate foreign groups as foreign terrorist organizations, but has granted no such power to the executive branch to designate domestic groups.
During Trump's first term, Mary McCord, a former senior official at the Department of Justice, told Al Jazeera there was no procedure for "designating domestic organisations as terrorist organisations," and Trump's efforts raised "significant First Amendment concerns."
It's worth noting that while counterprotesters acting under the antifa banner have sometimes turned violent, the actual rate of political violence motivated by left-wing ideologies is dwarfed by right-wing violence. Between 1975 and September 2025, individuals motivated by right-wing ideologies such white supremacy, involuntary celibacy, and anti-abortion beliefs committed 391 murders, according to the Cato Institute. Comparatively, people motivated by left-wing ideologies were responsible for 65 deaths.
It seems Trump's latest effort is a reactionary move following the death of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, which elicited condemnations of left-wing violence before the shooter's identity was even known. Earlier this week, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said that the administration planned to "channel all of the anger that we have over the organised campaign that led to this assassination, to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks."
As of yet, there is no evidence to suggest that Kirk's death was linked to the network known as antifa or that his assassin was motivated by a radical left-wing ideology.
This whole "we're a movement, not an organization" thing is just hyper-convenient when it comes to avoiding accountability for their actions.
Do you understand the different and how one applies to Antifa and not the other?
For the liars who say there is no way to join Antifa, show them these screenshots from Portland’s Rose City Antifa
What? You mean to say any group who wants to can call themselves ANTIFA just like these guys you mention because there is no centralized leadership of any actual national organization called "ANTIFA". Are there likely dozens of local activists who have adopted the name? I'm sure there are. Do they have to submit some kind of request to ANYONE to call themselves "ANTIFA"? Of course not, which again, proves there is no actual coordinated organization that leads all these anti-fascist local groups.
What I find hilarious, was watching Kash Patel ask for more info on Dylan Roof as if he'd never even heard of the rightwing bigot who shot and killed 9 black Americans while they were attending church. But of course, I'm not really surprised, the conservative bigots seem to always conveniently forget all the rightwing violence which is FAR more prolific than left wing violence. But because they apparently have the memory of a goldfish they only remember violence when it just happened and was the fault of their ideological opponents. Fucking hypocrites.
My favorite is when a white supremacist goes on a murder spree and the right talks about the killer's state of mental health. Can you imagine if I said....well, Tyler Robinson is very obviously disturbed. He needs treatment not a prison sentence
Now you are getting it. Even if that's all there is, dozens of people joining together to engage in terrorist activity makes them a terrorist group...
Do they have to submit some kind of request to ANYONE to call themselves "ANTIFA"?
do you think terrorist groups have legally registered trademarks and file organizing documents with the government?
What makes them a terrorist group is them committing some act of terror. Simply calling yourselves anti-fascist does not make someone a terrorist.
They do not, and yet most conservatives refer to ANTIFA as some monolith group that is organized by some central leadership that should be held accountable for acts taken by members of the group. ANTIFA is not Hamas, it's not ISIS, it's not Al Qaeda, it's not an actual nationally recognized group and thus you can't try and blame anyone who considers themselves anti-fascist or even calls themselves ANTIFA with crimes that other anti-fascists have committed.
I don't really give a fuck about anyone who calls themselves ANTIFA or this Portland group who uses that moniker, but I do think it's quite comical that conservatives are desperately trying to condemn not just those who have committed crimes but anyone who admits they hate fascists. I can only think of one reason conservatives would demonize anyone who hate fascists, and that's because deep down they know fascism is what awaits them at the end of the rightwing road.
Rightwing conservatives in America don't actually hate fascism like they weakly claim at times when cornered. They only hate fascism that isn't of their brand. When it's rightwing conservative Christian fascism that wants to ban abortion, establish their brand of Christianity in American society as the law of the land, ban gay marriage, allow citizens to openly discriminate against the lgtbq community being able to fire them or refusing them housing at will, ban books that treat lgtbq Americans as normal, treating undocumented immigrants as animals, ripping families apart, treating them like caged animals in internment camps, rightwing conservatives couldn't be happier and refuse to accept that their behavior could be considered "fascist". It seems they believe that to be a fascist you have to have committed genocide or already taken over a countries police and military. They don't see the obvious road to fascism that they're clearly on as fascism.
These Christo-fascists just keep chanting their mantra of "Make America Great Again!", which to them means taking America back to when they thought it was the greatest which was back to the days of "separate but equal", the days of telling racist jokes at work and having all the white conservative Christians around them laugh at others expense. They pine for the days of criminalizing homosexuality again, some likely hoping to put their fascist ideals into action like those worthless bigots did to Matthew Shepard, leaving his tortured body hanging from a barbed wire fence in Wyoming. That's the America the MAGAverse wants to return to, and what anti-fascists are protesting against.
Again, anyone, no matter what side of the aisle, no matter what moniker they label themselves as, whether ANTIFA or Boogaloo or Proud Boy, ANY of them that commit acts of violence or vandalism or are even calling for such on social media or elsewhere, should be hunted down, arrested and held accountable for their crimes.
Exactly. With Dylan Roof they almost fell over themselves trying to blame it on mental illness instead of the rightwing conservative ideology they constantly preach. Some even tried to claim he was a Democrat because of his confederate flag license plate which was beyond hilarious but is the standard deflection for dishonest Southern conservatives so not unexpected.
Link to conservatives saying Dylan Roof needed treatment not a prison sentence.
So you are complaining about them living in a glass house and throwing stones.... at your glass house.
I'll find it. But not today
What the fuck are you talking about?
He asks a good question, "So why aren't homegrown extremists stirring up the same public fear as those claiming to be acting in the name of Islam?". I think we all know the answer to that one, which is because there are tens of millions of rightwing conservative Americans who identify with those white nationalists and white supremacists. They see themselves, their parents, their kids, in them. How can they condemn their family simply because they harbor the same racist beliefs many white rightwing religious conservatives do? And apparently, some on the right are so stupid they believe even asking that question justifies their support for their racist beliefs. How dare you question them, even if they are being blatant racists! How dare you criticize them! How dare anyone question their white Christian superiority and the superiority of their white Jesus! /s
Trump, a Pro-Fascist, doesn't like Anti-Fascists. Shocking.
I don't like fascists. Does that make me an anti-fascist?
Does it disturb you how they are turning words on their ears to come up with completely different meanings?
You may not like fascists, but ARE YOU OPPOSED TO FASCISTS? If so, then you are anti-fascist.
Abso-fucking-lutely!
That's all it takes to be considered antifa. No membership, no dues, no registration.
Am I going to jail?
Normally I'd say "of course not". But under Trump's DOJ? It's not impossible.
I would like to say I need a vacation but I don;t want to end up in an Arkie jail
[✘]
I'm always sort of amazed the name gets pulled out like a trump card to rebut the notion that it could be something bad. Put aside the Berlin Wall was literally named "Antifascist Protection Rampart". Seems like that alone should be enough to destroy sanctity of the term. But we now have 10 plus years of evidence that self proclaimed anti-fascists are a distinct brand of left wing radicals intent on enforcing their views through violence.
If the Taliban called themselves the "good guys" the same idiots would probably claim only bad guys could oppose it.
So you like fascism?
Yes, the Commies were anti-fascist to the core. There's a reason for it. They were at the farthest end of spectrum from the fascists. They were totally not the same. Why do you think Nazis killed almost every Soviet POW they captured? And the Soviets did a fine job of murdering almost every Nazi they came across
Are you trying to claim the West Germans were fascists? That's what Soviet and East German propaganda called them, but I thought most Americans saw through it. Though the whole "they call themselves anti-fascist therefore anyone who opposes them are fascists" idiocy we see playing out probably should have disabused me of that long ago.
Hopefully, ISIS doesn't rebrand as the Super Terrific Cute Puppy Dog Defenders who Oppose Bad Things, or millions of Americans will immediately become sympathizers.
I'm still amazed anybody believed it to begin with. Here is this group that goes around enforcing their political will with thuggery and violence... but they claim they're opposing fascists, so that's OK then??
You see people who believe that and you start to understand how the "send your banking details to the imprisoned Nigerian finance minister" scam is so successful.
You laugh.... but......
I'm not as stupid as you think I am and stop putting words in my mouth. The Soviets and the East Germans were a horrible government. The West Germans were democratic and willing to make peace. No! The West Germans were not fascists. They did their best to head off the Commie horde.
And just remember I joined the military to fight the Commie horde. What did you do during the Cold War?
As for the rest of your comment....I don't have a clue what you are talking about. So let's just leave this here. I'm done
You said "Taliban". Did you mean to say "Hamas"?
There is no antifa organization. Trump will use this new designation as an excuse to arrest anyone he considers to be on the far left.
Or even just left of himself. So look out moderate republicans!
Yeah, legally, I don’t think there’s any such thing as a domestic terror designation. So, even if we agree that ANTIFA is an organization, there doesn’t appear to be any legal ramification available for labeling them a terrorist organization. There is a legal process for defining a foreign terrorist organization, but not for a domestic organization.
Nothing confusing about it. It’s spot on.
Trump blamed the January 6th riot and insurrection on "antifa", but he pardoned all those criminals, so is he going to revoke those pardons?
I mean if it was "antifa" that attacked the Capitol, he's only now calling it "terror"?
Beyond confusing, just a waste of time flooding the zone with nonsense.