President Trump announced on Wednesday night that he is officially designating Antifa as a “major terrorist organization.”
He penned, “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.”
“I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated,” the 47th president added.
The announcement followed Trump’s earlier comments this week signaling his intent to move forward with the designation. “It’s something I would do, yeah.”
“I would do that 100 percent. Antifa is terrible. Also, I’ve been speaking to the attorney general about bringing RICO against some of the people…who have been putting up millions and millions of dollars for agitation.”
“These aren’t protests, these are crimes what they’re doing,” he stated, as previously covered by Resist the Mainstream.
The declaration comes in the wake of the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, who was killed on Sept. 10.
Authorities said Tyler Robinson, 22, from Utah, carried out the killing and now faces capital murder charges.
President Trump directly tied the killing to radical left-wing extremism, saying Robinson appeared to have been “radicalized on the internet,” which may have contributed to the attack.
The president’s move against Antifa has drawn responses from across the political spectrum. Journalist Andy Ngo, senior editor of The Post Millennial and widely recognized for his reporting on Antifa, issued a statement on the announcement.
“At the end of the day, any executive declaration of Antifa being a terrorist organization would be symbolic. It was already declared so by the president during the first administration in 2020 as the violent riots began,” Ngo said.
Ngo noted that legal challenges remain in defining Antifa as a terrorist organization under federal law.
“The First Amendment has been interpreted by the courts to stop the government from banning organizing based on ideology,” he said.
“And federal terrorism legislation that does criminalize membership in terrorist organizations defines those groups as being international or foreign,” he explained.
Despite these hurdles, Ngo pointed to Trump’s reference to the RICO Act as a significant tool in combating Antifa’s networks.
“With that said, what I do think is more noteworthy is the president mentioning the use of RICO to target leftist groups involved in criminal conspiracies. I think that’s the key to dismantling some of the Antifa networks, which are intentionally decentralized and diffused,” he wrote.
Ngo highlighted an example from California, where prosecutors employed felony conspiracy charges against an Antifa cell.
“This was done effectively in San Diego last year by prosecutors breaking up SoCal Antifa by using felony conspiracy charges. All members identified in the cell were convicted,” he stated.
