Trump asks cabinet to consider declaring Antifa a foreign terrorist group

Last month, the president signed an order designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist group and directed agencies to investigate and dismantle its illegal operations

By Lauren Dezenski

   

President Donald Trump instructed members of his cabinet to move to declare Antifa a foreign terrorist organization at an event that highlighted his efforts to crack down on the loose collective of far left-wing groups. 

“I think it’s the kind of thing I’d like to do,” Trump said Wednesday at the White House in response to a question about whether he would make that designation. “If you agree, I agree. Let’s get it done.”

 

Trump was joined by Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem among other officials, as he hosted what was cast as a gathering of journalists who said they had been victims of violence and intimidation by Antifa.

 

“There are extensive foreign ties, and I think that would be a very valid step,” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller added but without offering any details on those purported links.

 

The president last month signed an executive order designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist group and directing federal agencies to use “all applicable authorities to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all illegal operations — especially those involving terrorist actions” conducted by Antifa or anyone claiming to be acting on its behalf.

 

That order sparked confusion over how the administration would implement it because there is no such provision for domestic groups. Federal law does allow for international groups to be labeled as foreign terrorist organizations. Such groups are designated by the secretary of State as a means of imposing financial sanctions, travel restrictions and other penalties on organizations deemed as engaging in terrorism.

 

Antifa, short for “antifascist,” references a movement with no centralized leadership or defined political organization. Critics have said that the administration is exaggerating the threat from the movement, seizing on Antifa to create a legal justification to quell protests against Trump’s policies.

 

That scrutiny has intensified in recent weeks with Trump and allies vowing to target leftist groups they blame for a spate of political violence impacting the country even though members of both the Republican and Democratic parties have been targeted in recent years.

 

In 2020, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers that Antifa is an ideology and not an organization, and a Congressional Research Service report compiled during the first Trump administration said the movement “lacks a unifying organizational structure or detailed ideology.”