🔗 Share this article

The US President declared in the early hours of Thursday that he aims to classify antifa as a “major terrorist organization”.

Understanding Is Antifa?

The antifa movement, an abbreviation for “anti-fascists,” refers to a broad label for radical left protest organizations. It is not a centralized structure, but comprises multiple collectives that confront neo-Nazis, particularly during public demonstrations.

Legal and Administrative Challenges

It is still unresolved how the administration could formally designate what is primarily a loosely organized movement as a extremist group. The White House has yet to clarify further details as of midweek.

Antifa is a domestic entity and, therefore, is ineligible for the official list of international extremist groups. The designation currently includes numerous groups, including ISIL and al-Qaida.

Currently, the US lacks a parallel registry due in part to broad constitutional rights afforded groups functioning inside the United States. Regardless of ongoing requests, particularly after deadly attacks by far-right militants, to create a national extremist legislation, no singular regulation has been passed.

Trump’s Statements

President Trump, currently on a diplomatic tour to the United Kingdom, made the announcement via a online message just prior to the middle of the night on Thursday. He called antifa as a “SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER”. Additionally, he emphasized that he will be “strongly recommending” that backers of antifa be looked into.

In an exchange with the press in the White House earlier this week, Trump noted that he would seek a homegrown extremist label for antifa if such a move had the approval of the top legal official and others in his administration.

“That is something I am willing to do, yeah,” Trump remarked. “I support that completely. Antifa is a problem.”

Political Reactions

On Wednesday night, a Republican senator, praised the president’s decision, saying: “The movement took advantage of a wave of valid concerns to encourage unrest and disorder, hindering fairness and equality. He is justified to address the destructive influence of antifa by designating them as domestic terrorists.”

Back in 2019, Cassidy and Senator Ted Cruz introduced a measure in the Senate to censure the violent acts of antifa and to designate the movement a domestic terror organization.

Historical Background

During the previous year, in the midst of the George Floyd protests, the president once again proposed the idea of labeling antifa as a terror organization.

Trump’s former head of the FBI, Christopher Wray, stated in testimony that the antifa movement is an political philosophy, rather than a structured group, missing the hierarchical structure that would normally allow it to be labeled as a radical network by the authorities.