President Donald Trump said he is designating the far-left anti-fascism movement Antifa as a terrorist organization, announcing the move on his Truth Social platform in the early hours of Thursday morning UK time.

It wasn’t immediately clear what mechanism Trump would use to make the designation, and Antifa lacks centralized structure or defined leadership, making it unclear who or what precisely would be targeted.

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

A White House official told CNN, “This is just one of many actions the president will take to address left wing organizations that fuel political violence.”

Trump — who’s overseas for a formal state visit — signaled the move earlier this week in remarks from the Oval Office following the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

  • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    2 hours ago

    It would be hilarious if a bunch of people on the left made a resistance group called the “New Republicans” just to fuck with them.

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2·
      1 hour ago

      So will LGBTQ+ people. Especially trans people.

      Similar to how they’re working on porn bans while simultaneously saying that being trans is just a weird sex thing. The end goal is to ban these minority groups from public, and give authorities carte blanche to harass them simply for existing.

  • rarsamx@lemmy.caEnglish
    36·
    4 hours ago

    Designate a concept as a terrorist organization, and then you can label anyone you don’t like as antifa so you can prosecute them.

    It’s ridiculous how far the US is now into fascism. If the frog knew any history it would know what it means to be in a nice pot with warm water on top of a stove.

    This feels like those theatre plays for children where the wolf is hiding behind the main character and all the children are shouting “the wolf is there!!” While the main character remains oblivious.

    • Fredselfish@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      5 hours ago

      He will label ActBlue as antifia. Its how a lot of progressive gather money to fund their campaigns. So AOC etc will either have to turn to super Pacs and fall inline or get no support.

      Just watch they already mentioned investigating them before.

  • FreshParsnip@lemmy.caEnglish
    37·
    10 hours ago

    Against fascism? Terrorist

    Against Trump? Terrorist

    Pro-LGBT? Terrorist

    Pro-free speech? Believe it or not, terrorist

  • acargitz@lemmy.caEnglish
    24·
    11 hours ago

    This is going to lead to an escalation of political violence.

    If something as nebulous as antifa is “terrorist”, then it’s easy for anyone to be classified as a terrorist. See also what is going on in the UK with Palestine Action. But instead of embarrassed unarmed bobbies doing the arresting, in the US it will be masked, unidentified goons, mirroring ICE practices. So that lowers the threshold to drop into a “homo sacer” category that can be basically shot on sight. Which means, more people will have nothing to lose. Which means more political violence.