Trump has announced he is designating Antifa a “major terrorist organization” following Charlie Kirk's assassination.

President Trump Statement

"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. I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

What’s the entity infamous for?

🌏 Antifa is a collective term for far-left militant groups whose stated aim is opposing fascists and neo-Nazis. These groups operate as a loosely coordinated network rather than a single formal organization.

🌏 A common tactic is wearing black clothing and masks at protests to conceal identities. Antifa members are often involved in violent actions during demonstrations.

🌏 In 2017, about 100 masked Antifa-linked activists attacked right-wing protesters in Berkeley, California, leading to multiple arrests.

🌏 Antifa was reported to have engaged in violent clashes during the BLM riots in 2020. Antifa activist Michael Reinoehl killed a Patriot Prayer supporter in Portland. Reinoehl was later shot dead by police.

🌏 The 2020 summer protests involving BLM and Antifa rioters claimed at least 25 lives and caused up to $2 billion in insurance claims over arson, vandalism, and looting. However, hundreds of arrested rioters later had their cases dismissed.

🌏 US investigative journalist Andy Ngo spotted Antifa activity during the summer 2025 anti-ICE riots, where bricks, rocks, and Molotov cocktails were used against law enforcement. Critics cite potential funding by Soros-linked organizations.

Organization or ideology?

🌏 Trump sought to designate Antifa as terrorists during his first term. However, then-FBI Director Chris Wray told US lawmakers in September 2020: “It’s not a group or an organization. It’s a movement or an ideology.”

🌏 Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller argued that someone is funding radical left operatives (https://t.me/geopolitics_prime/56427). He said the White House would target NGOs fomenting violence — including attacks on ICE and Border Patrol, doxing campaigns, and other illegal activities. He added that the source of funding behind these actions is a key concern.

Thoughts on the designation of Antifa as a "major terrorist organization"

It's entirely symbolic and in 2020, it didn't amount to much if you want to be brutally honest. We followed hundreds of those cases and there was little accountability, in Portland only 6 people got any prison time for all the rioting that went on there for example.

Honestly don't have much faith this will either, take for example the violence at Christian events in Seattle in May (5 months ago now). The people involved were the same exact people responsible for ENDD (Antifa/BLM group that organized dozens of riots in Seattle). FBI leadership made posts about investigating and holding people accountable, but nothing has happened since.

The claim that they're going to start large federal RICO cases against all these people has been something said in conservative circles for years, but it hasn't amounted to much outside of the state case in Atlanta, which is somewhat falling apart. Maybe this time will be different but as someone who has spent years following the court cases, I lack a bit of faith on it.

The non-symbolic move is to designate them a foreign terrorist organization via the state department. Because very simply, it's unambiguously true, Antifa does operate as a decentralized transnational terror network, sometimes with organized groups/cells and other times as lone-wolf style attacks. The state department has designated decentralized transnational terror networks as FTOs before. This opens up an ability to prosecute under material support laws in a different way.

Take for example this post from Corvallis Antifa, this isn't happening in a vacuum, it's enabled by another set of antifa in Italy who support hundreds of violent extremist groups across the world with their platform that shares arson guides, calls to violence, explosives, and other crime guides. You could point to other example of international groups like Antifa international or the sharing of terror content and tactics overseas like Autonomous German Antifa tactics being brought to America.

There is recent precedent in the courts for this being done to accelerationist groups (done at the end of the Biden administration) that operate in a similar decentralized transnational way. US citizens who have operated in America have been charged with FTO material support cases for this. Antifa has committed more violence and most certainly more high-profile violence then those groups. Treat them the same way. 

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