Trump Announces Major Action to Curb Antifa

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will designate Antifa, a loose coalition of activist groups that has engaged in violent riots across the country in recent years, a terrorist organization.

“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,” the president posted on Truth Social.

“I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices,” Trump added. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

“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.”

While protests in the name of the Black Lives Matter movement occasionally grew into violent riots 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, including black people like 77-year-old retired St. Louis Police Captain David Dorn.

According to the State Department, under Executive Order 13224, which President George W. Bush signed after Sept. 11, 2001, the designation of an organization as a terrorist organization leads to many immediate consequences.

Federal law enforcement will have the ability to block the designated organization’s access to property or ability to conduct transactions, and the legal system will deter donations or contributions to such organizations. The designation will draw public attention to the group, and will alert other governments to American concerns about support for terrorism, among other things.

The terrorist designation will not change the charges a federal prosecutor can make, but it will help prioritize federal resources to combat Antifa and encourage law enforcement coordination against it, according to Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Fellow Cully Stimson and Lora Ries, the director of Heritage’s center on border security.

While Congress has defined domestic terrorism—specifically as activities that involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of criminal law; that appear intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence policy, or affect government conduct by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and that take place within the U.S.—there is no federal law assigning criminal penalties for it.

The onus mostly rests on states and localities to investigate, arrest, and prosecute those who violate state law, according to Stimson and Ries. The federal government can play a role if the riots have been coordinated and funded across state lines.

Stimson and Ries identified a specific federal law that rioters may have violated: Title 18, Section 2101 of the U.S. Criminal Code. That law criminalizes interstate travel or use of interstate commerce, including mail, telephone, radio, or television to: incite a riot; organize, promote, or encourage a riot; commit any act of violence in a riot; or aid or abet any person in engaging in these activities. The crime is punishable by a fine, up to five years’ imprisonment, or both.

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