RIPE FOR INVESTIGATION: Trump Administration Is Right to Probe Potential Funding of Antifa Violence

The Charlie Kirk assassination has underscored the Left’s radicalization, and President Donald Trump is right to respond, in part, by investigating the potential funding sources behind Antifa and violent protests.

The FBI is still investigating whether anyone else knew of 22-year-old suspect Tyler Robinson’s alleged plans to kill Kirk, but based on interviews with Robinson’s mother, the alleged murderer had increasingly adopted leftist political positions and endorsed the transgender movement—even apparently carrying out the attack for his boyfriend, who identifies as female. His bullet casings reportedly included anti-fascist messaging resonant of Antifa.

Trump announced Wednesday night that he would be designating Antifa a terrorist organization.

“Left-wing organizations have fueled violent riots, organized attacks against law enforcement officers, coordinated illegal doxing campaigns, arranged drop points for weapons and riot materials, and more,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told The Daily Signal in a statement Tuesday.

“The Trump administration will get to the bottom of this vast network inciting violence in American communities,” she added. “This effort will target those committing criminal acts and hold them accountable.”

“The key point the president has been making is somebody is paying for all of this,” White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said this week. “This is not happening for free, and so out of the president’s direction, the attorney general is going to find out who is paying for it, and they will now be criminally liable for paying for violence.”

Leftist agitators often refer to themselves as Antifa, short for “anti-fascist,” branding their opponents as akin to Nazis. These agitators form a loose, largely disconnected street movement, and they have reportedly joined more mainstream protests, only to leave the crowd and engage in violence, then return to the safety of the crowd.

What Has Antifa Done?

While Antifa agitators engaged in violence in conjunction with Black Lives Matter protests before 2020, the riots that followed protests in the name of George Floyd that summer set a horrifying record for violent destruction.

Property Claim Services reported in 2021 that the protests between May 28 and June 8, 2020, resulted in more than $2 billion in insurance payouts, the largest “riot and civil disorder catastrophe” on record. At least 26 Americans lost their lives in the riots, notably including black people like 77-year-old retired St. Louis Police Captain David Dorn.

More recent episodes of protests that grew into violence include the anti-Tesla actions this spring and the riots against immigration enforcement in Los Angeles, Calif. Columbia University anti-Israel protesters reportedly enjoyed high-priced sandwiches and coffee.

The Left’s Dark Money Network

In some of these cases, groups that organized protests received grants from the Left’s dark money network, a system of left-wing foundations that direct cash to the infrastructure I describe as the Woketopus: the leftist groups that staffed and advised the Biden administration.

The Left’s dark money network directs cash to nonprofits that then organize protests, and those protests grow into riots. Some of the riots involve weapons, shields, and Molotov cocktails.

Trump is right to consider whether funding this violence may violate the law, but the administration needs to be careful not to undermine free speech and free association while investigating this funding. Furthermore, the Justice Department will likely find fierce resistance from the lawyers who represent the Left’s dark money network.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, struck the right note in July when he explained his Stop Financial Underwriting of Nefarious Demonstrators and Extremist Riots Act or the Stop FUNDERS Act. The bill adds rioting, as defined by the federal anti-riot statute, to the list of racketeering predicate offenses.

“Every American has the right to freedom of speech and peaceful protest, but not to commit violence,” Cruz stated. “Domestic NGOs and foreign adversaries fund and use riots in the United States to undermine the security and prosperity of Americans.”

In Senate testimony Tuesday, FBI Director Kash Patel said the bill would help his ability to prosecute such funding.

New laws may or may not be necessary, but it is high time the Justice Department investigate the funding behind violent riots.

Antifa should be terrified.

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