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Trump’s antifa crackdown is actually pretty fascist [1]
['Daily Kos Staff']
Date: 2025-09-18
President Donald Trump announced late Wednesday that he would designate antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. There’s just one problem—actually, several: antifa isn’t an organization; the far right commits far more political violence; and Trump likely doesn’t have the power to do it anyway.
“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. “I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices.”
A White House official doubled down, telling CNN the move was “one of many actions the president will take to address left-wing organizations that fuel political violence.”
Related | Americans see left and right violence as equal issues. The data doesn’t.
But like many of Trump’s headline-grabbing pronouncements, it’s unclear how he could even pull this off. Antifa—short for “anti-fascist”—is a loose social movement, not a formal organization. There’s no leadership, membership rolls, or even a headquarters. The ADL notes that “because there is no unifying body for antifa, it is impossible to know how many adherents are currently active.” That makes it nearly impossible to know who, exactly, Trump is targeting.
The term antifa generally describes a broad set of people whose politics lean left—often far left—but who don’t necessarily align with the Democratic Party platform. Some groups meet regularly in certain states, but there’s nothing resembling a national structure.
Even if Trump could find someone to target, the legal foundation for such a move is shaky at best. Only the secretary of state can designate foreign groups as terrorist organizations. There’s no parallel process for domestic groups. During Trump’s first term, Mary McCord, a former senior official at the Department of Justice, told Al Jazeera that there was no procedure for “designating domestic organizations as terrorist organizations” and warned such efforts would raise “significant First Amendment concerns.”
This isn’t Trump’s first attempt to paint antifa as terrorist. Back in May 2020, during the nationwide protests over the police murder of George Floyd, he announced plans to make the designation and then-Attorney General Bill Barr said he’d treat antifa violence as domestic terrorism. But months later, FBI Director Chris Wray told Congress that “antifa is an ideology, not a group or organization,” a statement which earned him a public rebuke from Trump.
And the data doesn’t back up Trump’s claims. Counterprotesters acting under the antifa banner have sometimes turned violent, but left-wing extremists account for a fraction of political violence in the U.S. Between 1975 and September 2025, right-wing extremists were responsible for 391 murders, according to the Cato Institute. Left-wing extremists were responsible for 65.
Trump’s new push comes in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing, which has set off a firestorm on the right. Even before the shooter was identified, prominent conservatives were calling for “war” against the left. A 22-year-old man has since been charged with murder, allegedly admitting in text messages that he killed Kirk because of his “hatred,” but his exact motive remains unclear. So far, there’s no evidence connecting him to antifa.
That hasn’t stopped Trump officials from signaling a broader crackdown. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said the administration plans to “channel all of the anger that we have over the organized campaign that led to this assassination, to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks.”
Trump, for his part, has floated revoking tax-exempt status for liberal nonprofits.
“Antifa is terrible. There are other groups,” Trump said Monday in the Oval Office. “We have some pretty radical groups, and they got away with murder,” he added, without offering any examples or evidence.
He also said he and Attorney General Pam Bondi have been discussing racketeering charges against left-wing groups he accuses of promoting violence.
Related | Even Charlie Kirk would've disagreed with Pam Bondi about 'hate speech'
“I’ve asked Pam to look into that in terms of RICO, bringing RICO cases,” Trump said. “They should be put in jail. What they’re doing to this country is really subversive.”
The crackdown doesn’t stop there. Bondi briefly suggested prosecuting “hateful speech” before backtracking. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has begun suspending military service members who posted negative comments about Kirk online. And Vice President JD Vance even encouraged Americans to call the employers of people who criticized Kirk in the wake of his death.
Designating any domestic group as a terrorist organization would be an unprecedented step and would almost certainly face legal challenges—but Trump has never let that stop him. All 219 terrorist groups designated by the State Department are foreign entities, and there’s a reason for that: The law was designed to prevent U.S. presidents from wielding this power against their political opponents at home.
But Trump isn’t worried about the legal fight—he’s focused on the spectacle. Announce the most extreme solution, force everyone to react, and see what sticks. The courtroom isn’t his endgame: intimidation is.
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