Trump says he plans to designate Antifa a ‘major terrorist’ group

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Trump described the group as a ‘sick, dangerous, radical left disaster’ as well as a ‘major terrorist organisation’.

United States President Donald Trump has announced he plans to designate left-wing activist group Antifa a “terrorist organisation”.

Posting on his Truth Social platform late on Wednesday, Trump described the group as a “sick, dangerous, radical left disaster” as well as a “major terrorist organisation”.

“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!” Trump said.

It was unclear who or what exactly the US president plans to designate, with Antifa, short for anti-fascists, a loosely organised band of activists opposed to right-wing ideology that lacks a distinct leader, structure or membership list.

During his first term, Trump also threatened to designate Antifa^[1] a terrorist organisation in the wake of wide-spread protests across the US in response to the killing of unarmed Black man George Floyd in May 2020.

Trump sought to place blame Antifa for acts of “domestic terrorism”, as he accused them of instigating and leading that summer’s heated and sometimes violent protests.

Back then, legal scholars and analysts said Trump had no legal authority to designate a domestic group in the same way it does foreign entities.

Mary McCord, a former senior Justice Department official, told Al Jazeera there is no mechanism for “designating domestic organisations as terrorist organisations” and Trump’s attempts to designate Antifa would “raise significant First Amendment concerns”.

These legal limitations remain a factor today, while critics have also raised questions as to how a legal designation would be enforced and handled given the group’s amorphous nature.

Trump failed to follow through on his pledge last time, and it remains unclear whether he will seriously pursue the designation through formal channels this time – an act which would in theory require coordination across federal agencies.

Trump’s announcement came as senior White House officials also said on Monday that they would dismantle a “vast domestic terror movement”^[2] fomented by left-wing activists that they claim resulted in right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk being assassinated last week.

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said the Trump administration is “going to channel all of the anger that we have over the organised campaign that led to this assassination, to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks”.

Investigators have yet to provide a motive for Kirk’s killing – which authorities allege was carried out by 22-year-old Utah native Tyler Robinson – but many on the right of the political divide have blamed leftist ideology for the assassination.

References

1. ^{^} threatened to designate Antifa (www.aljazeera.com)
2. ^{^} “vast domestic terror movement” (www.aljazeera.com)