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Yesterday, Trump signed an executive order designating antifa — the decentralized movement against fascism — a domestic terrorist organization, although the U.S. does not have a federal domestic terrorism law.
“[Antifa] uses illegal means to organize and execute a campaign of violence and terrorism nationwide to accomplish these goals,” the order states. “This campaign involves coordinated efforts to obstruct enforcement of Federal laws through armed standoffs with law enforcement, organized riots, violent assaults on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other law enforcement officers, and routine doxing of and other threats against political figures and activists.”
“Because of the aforementioned pattern of political violence designed to suppress lawful political activity and obstruct the rule of law, I hereby designate Antifa as a ‘domestic terrorist organization,’” the order continues.
The order directs the federal government to investigate and prosecute “those who fund [antifa] operations.”
An accompanying factsheet also emphasizes anti-ICE protests.
“Antifa has engaged in armed standoffs with law enforcement, organized riots, violently assaulted ICE and other law enforcement officers, and engages in routine doxing of political figures and activists, threatening public safety,” the factsheet reads.
“ICE officers are now facing a 1000% increase in assaults against them,” the factsheet says, a claim the administration has made numerous times without evidence.
Faiza Patel, director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, told NPR before the order was announced that “[t]here is no framework to designate an organization as a domestic terrorist organization.”
Trump first proposed designating antifa a “terrorist organization” during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 that erupted in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd. The president renewed this call last week in a social media post saying he was designating antifa, “A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.”
“I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices,” he continued.
“Nearly every word in the president’s post was a lie,” wrote Christopher Mathias, author of the forthcoming book, “To Catch a Fascist: The Fight to Expose the Radical Right,” for MSNBC. “Antifa isn’t an organization. There is no legal statute with which to declare antifa a ‘major terrorist organization.’ Nor does antifa have a network of rich, shadowy benefactors who can be unmasked. (What little money antifa’s practitioners do have typically comes from their own pockets.)”
Trump’s order follows a ramped-up assault on the First Amendment in the wake of the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, a right-wing commentator who made numerous racist and anti-trans statements. There is no evidence to suggest that Kirk’s murder was tied to left-wing activists or movements, but that has not stopped the far right from using his death to squash dissent.
The day after Kirk’s death, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau requested people report “foreigners” to the State Department who post on social media “praising, rationalizing, or making light of the event.”
“In light of yesterday’s horrific assassination of a leading political figure, I want to underscore that foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country,” Landau posted on X on September 11.
“I have been disgusted to see some on social media praising, rationalizing, or making light of the event, and have directed our consular officials to undertake appropriate action,” he continued. “Please feel free to bring such comments by foreigners to my attention so that the @StateDept can protect the American people.”
Of course, the Trump administration’s assault on the First Amendment did not begin with Kirk’s murder. The day before his death, the Center for Media and Democracy reported that DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told the outlet that “videotaping ICE law enforcement and posting photos and videos of them online is doxxing our agents.”
“We will prosecute those who illegally harass ICE agents to the fullest extent of the law,” she said.
In July, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed “violence” against ICE agents includes “anything that threatens them and their safety, so it is doxing them, it’s videotaping them where they’re at when they’re out on operations.”
Recording law enforcement is protected by the First Amendment.
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