US President Donald Trump early yesterday said that he plans to designate Antifa as a “major terrorist organization.”
Antifa, short for “anti-fascists,” is an umbrella term for militant groups known to confront people at demonstrations.
Trump, who is on a state visit to the UK, made the announcement in a social media post shortly before 1:30am.
Photo: AFP
He called Antifa a “SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER.”
He also said he would be “strongly recommending” that funders of Antifa be investigated.
Antifa is a domestic entity and, as such, is not a candidate for inclusion on the US Department of State’s list of foreign terror organizations.
Dozens of groups, including the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, are on that list.
The designation matters in part because it enables the US Department of Justice to prosecute those who give material support to entities on the list even if the support does not result in violence.
There is no domestic equivalent to the foreign list in part because of broad free speech protections enjoyed by organizations operating within the US.
In an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said he would pursue a domestic terrorism designation for Antifa if such a move had the support of US Attorney General Pam Bondi and others in his Cabinet.
“It’s something I would do, yeah,” Trump said. ”I would do that 100 percent. Antifa is terrible.”
On Wednesday, US Senator Bill Cassidy praised Trump’s announcement, saying: “Antifa seized upon a movement of legitimate grievances to promote violence and anarchy, working against justice for all. The president is right to recognize the destructive role of Antifa by designating them domestic terrorists.”
In July 2019, Cassidy and US Senator Ted Cruz introduced a resolution in the US Senate to condemn the violent acts of Antifa and to designate the group a domestic terror organization.
In 2020, amid protests after the death of George Floyd, Trump also raised the idea of designating Antifa as a terror organization.
Then-FBI director Christopher Wray said in testimony that year that Antifa is an ideology, not an organization, lacking the hierarchical structure that would usually allow it to be designated as a terror group by the federal government.
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