President Trump signed an executive order on Monday targeting the left-wing antifascist movement, known as antifa, threatening “investigatory and prosecutorial action” against those who financially support it.
But Mr. Trump’s order said that he was declaring antifa a “domestic terrorist organization” — a designation that does not actually exist under U.S. law. Anti-fascism, like fascism itself, is a broad political ideology rather than a specific organization, and the U.S. does not have a domestic terrorism law.
The order came amid a wider intimidation campaign by the president and his administration targeting his critics, political opponents and major media institutions. Mr. Trump demanded over the weekend that the Justice Department move quickly to prosecute his political enemies, and his administration has undertaken a broad effort to threaten liberal protesters and donors to progressive groups after the killing of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Antifa is a diffuse and sometimes violent protest culture of left-wing activists who want to stop the far right. The group takes its name and iconography from the antifascist movement that opposed the Nazi Party and other far-right political parties in the 1920s and 30s. Like their predecessors, the modern antifa movement is associated with an aggressive form of protest that sometimes crosses into illegal or violent activity like breaking store windows or setting police cars on fire.
Mr. Trump had threatened last week to designate antifa a terror group, after trying and failing to do so in his first administration after the group gained prominence in the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.
Even though the language of Mr. Trump’s executive order echoes those he has aimed at foreign criminal organizations like Latin American drug cartels and gangs, it lacks the same teeth.
Federal law empowers the government to label overseas groups “foreign terrorist organizations,” a status that allows the U.S. to freeze their assets and makes it a crime to provide material support to them. But there is no equivalent domestic terrorism law, and legal experts downplayed the legal effect of Mr. Trump asserting his authority to label domestic groups as terrorists.
The antifa order does not attempt to use those powers, instead directing agencies to “investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all illegal operations” by the movement — something they already have the authority to do.
Even if a domestic terrorist organization designation did exist, using it against antifa would face practical difficulties.
Antifa does not have a leader that could be targeted, a roster of known members, bank accounts to freeze or a centralized structure.
Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.
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