Antifa to Be Labeled Terror Organization

The White House is cracking down on Left-wing “terrorist” organisations following the killing of Charlie Kirk.

Donald Trump said he would consider designating Antifa as a terror group, while one of the US president’s senior strategists said the administration would “destroy” Left-wing organisations.

Last week’s killing of Kirk by a gunman accused of radicalised views has prompted many Republicans to warn of rising Left-wing extremism in the US.

It came after a rise in violence against officials across the political spectrum, including the shootings of two Minnesota Democratic politicians last year, as well as several attempts to assassinate Trump.

However, Democrats have accused Trump and his allies of trying to exploit Kirk’s death, using it as a pretext to launch attacks on political opponents and consolidate power.

Asked about designating Antifa, the Left-wing US group, as a terror organisation during a question-and-answer session with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said: “I would do that, 100 per cent. Antifa is terrible.”

Speaking on a memorial edition of The Charlie Kirk Show – hosted by JD Vance, the vice-president – Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, vowed to “disrupt, dismantle and destroy” Left-wing groups that organise political violence

“We are going to channel all of the anger that we have over the organised campaign that led to this assassination, to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks,” he said.

“With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the department of justice, homeland security, and throughout this government, to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people.

“It will happen and we will do it in Charlie’s name.”

Vance said national unity was “impossible” with those who are celebrating Kirk’s death.

“I’m desperate for our country to be united in condemnation of the actions and the ideas that killed my friend,” he said on the programme, which was broadcast from the White House.

“I want it so badly that I will tell you a difficult truth. We can only have it with people who acknowledge that political violence is unacceptable.”

‘Pretext to destroy political opposition’

Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator, raised concerns that the Trump administration was using the assassination to crack down on its critics.

He said in a video posted online that Trump could have taken the opportunity to “confront political violence”.

Instead, he said, the US president “appears to be preparing to use the shooting as a pretext to destroy his political opposition and consolidate power”.

Murphy said: “Maga just sees this as an opportunity to do what they’ve always wanted to do: use the legal system that they control to destroy opposition to Trump so that he and his allies can rule uncontested.”

Tyler Robinson, 22, was arrested on Friday for the killing of Kirk. Casings from an abandoned weapon were said by the FBI to have been inscribed with messages including: “Hey fascist! Catch!” and “Bella Ciao”, an Italian Second World War anti-fascist song.

Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said he thought that Robinson had been radicalised on the internet and “went bad very quickly”.

The US president vowed to dismantle the “radical Left”, which he said was “directly responsible for the terrorism that we are seeing in the country today”.

It has since emerged that Robinson was in a relationship with his transgender roommate, and that he allegedly penned a note saying he planned to take Kirk “out”.

Antifa movement

The “Antifa” movement gets its name from a short form of “anti-fascist”. Its stated goal is to resist the spread of fascism.

Antifa activists generally view fascism as the violent enforcement of social and biological inequalities. The movement, however, can be disorganised and consists of various factions with differing interpretations.

One of its best-known tactics is to appear in a mass protest as a “black bloc”, with members moving with military precision in black clothing as they launch attacks.

Christopher Wray, Trump’s previous FBI director, said in testimony in 2020 that Antifa was an ideology, not an organisation, lacking the hierarchical structure that would usually allow it to be designated as a terror group by the federal government.

Trump also unveiled more details of his measures to combat crime in Memphis, Tennessee. He said he would send a task force that was a “replica” of the one he sent into the US capital, Washington DC, in August.

“The effort will include the National Guard as well as the FBI” and other federal agencies, Trump said, adding that it was “very important because of the crime that’s going on”.