The Trump administration is pursuing an unprecedented expansion of the U.S. government’s list of foreign terrorist organizations, adding left-wing groups in Europe along with Latin American drug-trafficking organizations — entities not associated with the ideological violence central to Washington’s counterterrorism stance dating back decades.
Officials said this week that in coming days the administration will add four “violent Antifa groups” based in Germany, Italy and Greece to the list. The Trump administration this year designated 19 entities as foreign terrorist organizations, including Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua.
The Trump administration is pursuing an unprecedented expansion of the U.S. government’s list of foreign terrorist organizations, adding left-wing groups in Europe along with Latin American drug-trafficking organizations — entities not associated with the ideological violence central to Washington’s counterterrorism stance dating back decades.
Officials said this week that in coming days the administration will add four “violent Antifa groups” based in Germany, Italy and Greece to the list. The Trump administration this year designated 19 entities as foreign terrorist organizations, including Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua.
Since 2001, Islamist extremist networks have accounted for the vast majority of groups put on the list, typically those with active links to transnational actors that threatened the United States, such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. The 23 entities that the Trump administration has added or plans to add is the most in a single year since the foreign terrorist list was established in 1997, when 28 organizations were designated.
Though far left groups have appeared on the list before, experts said the targeting of groups linked to antifa — a broad left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist ideology that has a long history in Europe — was a highly unusual move, particularly as those targeted this week do not directly threaten the United States or have a record of committing deadly attacks. Some counterterrorism experts said that the move could open U.S. citizens perceived as having links to antifa to criminal investigation.
“These are four organizations that have been around for varying periods of time, but they don’t have one fatality associated with their activity,” said Jason Blazakis, who led the State Department’s Counterterrorism Finance and Designations Office from 2008 to 2018.
The State Department declined to answer further questions about why it was expanding the foreign terrorist list so rapidly and how the groups were chosen.
Terrorist designations are a powerful tool, effectively blocking access to the U.S. financial system and prohibiting U.S. citizens from conducting business with those on the list.
To be designated as a foreign terrorist organization, a group must not only commit acts of terrorism — defined in U.S. law as “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets” — but also be a threat to the security of United States nationals or the national security of the United States, according to the law that established the system.
The Trump administration has removed one entity from the terrorist list: Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham, a former Syrian rebel group once aligned with al-Qaeda. That group was led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. Now Syria’s president he met with President Donald Trump at the White House this week and has pledged to rebuild the country’s relationship with the United States.
The administration’s targeting of left wing European groups follows Trump’s declaration of “Antifa” as a domestic terrorist organization. He did so in September, after the shooting death of right wing influencer Charlie Kirk, who was close with the president. There is no public evidence that Kirk’s alleged shooter was a member of a specific antifa-aligned group.
Trump’s order carried no clear repercussions for individuals aligned with antifa, which has been described as a decentralized movement with no unified structure or detailed ideology. The president routinely asserts that “radicals on the left” are to blame for the preponderance of political violence in the United States, though members of both political parties have been victims of such crimes.
Daniel Byman, an expert on terrorism with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the president’s declaration that antifa is a domestic terrorist organization was “meaningless legally,” but that the law clearly states Americans could be prosecuted for supporting a foreign terrorist organization.
“The law is very powerful if there is a connection to a designated foreign group even if the group itself is not a big deal … or the support seems minor,” Byman wrote in an email.
Blazakis, the former State Department official, noted that, in the past, federal investigators have used such designations to target U.S. citizens suspected of links to groups such as al-Qaeda, adding that the FBI could use designations of antifa-related groups in Europe “as a cover to try to infiltrate perceived antifa cells in the United States.”
Trump administration officials have compared drug cartels and antifa to such international terrorist organizations as al-Qaeda. “They’re essentially trying to make the argument that from an organizational perspective, [antifa is] no different than ISIS, with regional branches or affiliates,” said Colin Clarke, executive director of the security-focused think tank the Soufan Center.
In Latin America, the Trump administration has pursued military action against designated organizations involved in the illicit drug trade, drawing protests from Democrats and a smattering of Republicans in Congress who say they have not authorized the president to use deadly force for this purpose. The administration has sought to justify it actions, which have killed at least 80 people, by arguing that the president had “determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations” in Latin America.
Law of war experts contend that the Trump administration’s activities are illegal because the small vessels being targeted are carrying civilians allegedly involved in the commercial sale of drugs, not armed hostilities against the U.S. or its citizens.
The four European groups due to be added to the foreign terrorist list on Thursday — Antifa Ost from Germany; Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front in Italy; and Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense from Greece — have been involved in violent attacks, according to the State Department. Antifa Ost is accused of targeting right wing individuals in Germany and Hungary, and the three other groups each have been linked to explosive attacks, among other crimes.
In a statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that these groups used “revolutionary anarchist or Marxist ideologies, including anti-Americanism … to incite and justify violent assaults domestically and overseas.”
The embassies of Germany, Italy and Greece did not respond to requests for comments.
In July, German federal prosecutors charged six people thought to be close to Antifa Ost with attempted murder, aggravated assault and membership in a criminal organization for their role in attacks targeting right-wing extremists in Budapest in 2023. An additional seven people suspected of participation in the network are on trial in Dresden in connection with an attack on an alleged neo-Nazi there, among other suspected acts.
Another possible member of the network is being prosecuted in Hungary for suspected involvement in the attacks there and faces up to 24 years in prison. The State Department noted that on Sept. 26, Hungary designated Antifa Ost a terrorist organization. Trump enjoys a close relationship to Hungary’s right-wing prime minister, Viktor Orban, and last week granted Hungary a special exemption from sanctions for importing Russian oil and gas.
Germany’s domestic intelligence characterizes Antifa Ost as belonging to the left-wing extremist spectrum, which it describes as those who “want to abolish the existing state and social order, and thus the free and democratic order,” but German officials have downplayed the group’s significance. A spokeswoman for the country’s Interior Ministry told reporters Friday that the group was already under investigation and security services had assessed that the threat it posed had “recently decreased significantly.”
“It’s certainly a violent network, though it’s not being talked about as [a terrorist organization] in Germany by most mainstream politicians,” said Peter Neumann, an expert in violent extremism at King’s College London.
A prominent German far-right activist is seeking asylum in the United States, alleging persecution by “Antifa,” as well as surveillance by the German state.
The woman, Naomi Seibt, met recently with a Republican member of Congress and has been in regular touch on social media with former top Trump adviser Elon Musk, both of whom support her asylum case, she told The Washington Post. Trump administration proposals would grant priority refugee status for Europeans targeted for populist views, among others.
Some experts expressed confusion about how and why these groups were chosen for the terrorist designation, given that some did not appear to subscribe to the antifa ideology.
Mark Bray, a Rutgers University history professor who studies antifascism, said that the Trump administration appeared to be conflating anti-fascist groups with other groups of different left wing ideologies.
“Obviously Antifa Ost is an antifa group,” Bray said. “The other three are not. They’re anarchist groups or networks of groups that are, yes, revolutionary and yes, they attacked the state and they attacked the police. But they are not antifa groups.”
“To me this is clearly an effort to create a stepping stone towards using a foreign terrorist designation to attack groups or individuals in the U.S.,” Bray added.
The State Department said that the Italian group FAI/FRI had claimed responsibility for threats of violence, bombs and letter bombs against political and economic institutions, including a courthouse, since 2003.
Both Greek organizations to be listed as foreign terrorist organizations — Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense — have been linked to bombing attacks against government offices, with the latter linked to an April bombing at the Hellenic Train offices in central Athens. The explosion caused no injuries.
Aaron Weiner and Kate Brady contributed to this report.
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