President Trump announced Wednesday that he will designate Antifa as a “MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION” and push for investigations of backers of the radical, left-wing group.
“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,” the president added. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Antifa — short for “anti-fascist” — is a shadowy and violent group whose members, usually masked and clad in black, often show up at protests to clash with law enforcement and spark violent riots.
It’s unclear when Trump plans to make the designation official or what legal weight it will carry.
Unlike for foreign terrorist organizations, the US government does not currently have a mechanism in place to designate domestic terror groups.
Trump similarly said he would slap Antifa with a terror designation in 2020, in response to major riots in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd.
The Justice Department, at the time, directed additional resources to apprehend and charge “violent radical agitators.”
“The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly,” then-Attorney General Bill Barr said in May 2020.
Trump signaled earlier this week that he was “100%” in favor of designating the group, which doesn’t appear to have a defined leadership structure, a terror group.
The president’s announcement comes as calls for a crackdown on left-wing groups have grown in the wake of last week’s assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The Turning Point USA founder’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, has been described by authorities as being “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology.”
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