‘Antifa’ is not a Terrorist Organization. It’s Not Even an Organization.
It’s a Right-Wing trope now being weaponized against free speech and association.
Donald Trump has long asserted that ‘Antifa’ is a domestic terrorist organization. But it’s not. Antifa is not an entity or an organization at all. No such entity or organization has never been actually identified or located by law enforcement. No Antifa entity has ever actually threatened national security or domestic tranquility.
Instead, Antifa is an ‘anti-fascist’ identity that a very few activists — particularly in Portland, Oregon — adopted in the last couple of decades as right-wing extremists became increasingly public, present, intimidating, and violent in actions and demonstrations around the country — like what occurred when white nationalists massed and marched with their Tiki Torches, and became deadly violent in Charlottesville, VA, in 2017.
Rather than an actual domestic threat, Antifa has for years been invoked by cynical leaders to gin-up fears and polarization among gullible Americans. I’ve also heard it used as a racist dog whistle to signal the threat of a secret, hidden mass army of primarily savage black men about to sweep in out of nowhere to murder, rape, and pillage predominantly white neighborhoods.
This is all propaganda. And it’s nonsense.
How do we know this? It’s in the public record. You just have to query the FBI and law enforcement agency records and reports nationwide and federally and you find no evidence of an Antifa organization. Nothing. Nada.
Where, except in right-wing fantasyland has any evidence of a terrorist threat been produced about Antifa? Nowhere.
How many FBI raids have there been of Antifa bases or training camps? None.
How many cells, groups, or training camps have ever even been identified and verified as such. None.
Where has Antifa ever claimed an attack? Nowhere.
Where is the evidence that Antifa has any sort of organization or ongoing leadership, followers, sleeper agents and cells, or trainees, etc? There is none.
There is none because there is no evidence to be had that Antifa is even an organization let alone one posing any threat to the U.S. Government or to the nation.
So, where does this trope come from? It comes from the appearance of a few individuals at a few demonstrations who dressed all in black and identified themselves as Antifa — as antifascists.
I can remember a rally in the Copley Square area of Boston perhaps a decade ago where there were a few individuals dressed all in black who were next to the speakers’ platform. I remember asking someone who they were and was told they were self-appointed ‘protectors’ against the possible interference by right-wing thugs. They identified themselves as ‘Antifa,’ which stood for ‘anti-fascist.’ But this was a rare and transitory phenomenon. I haven’t seen —and no one else I know has seen — ‘Antifa’ at demonstrations for years.
Antifa was an idea that a few young people adopted as a way of relating to the peace movement for a short time, but it never had any mass following or any organized base beyond a few individuals here and there. Mostly they who just stood around and stood-out in black clothing and wearing black versions of the same sorts of masks now worn by ICE, signaling that they weren’t part of the demonstration but there to ward-off potential ‘fascist’ thugs.
They were not provocateurs. I never saw and never heard from other activists of these few young people engaging in any violent or threatening behavior. If they had been violent and or provocateurs, word would have spread quickly and they would have been shunned by the so-called ‘left’ which, if it can be characterized at all, can only be characterized as people who follow Martin Luther King, Jr’s model of entirely peaceful protest and direct action.
But with just no evidence of a vast militant left-wing organization, the right wing ecosystem just made one up and went crazy with the threat of Antifa. And President Trump did too.
And this has consequences.
I can remember visiting a small beach town in CT as COVID protocols were beginning to be relaxed during Trump 1.0. A little league baseball game was being played. One of the parents spent the whole time talking about how he had heard that Antifa, which he understood as a predominantly black/BLM-related organization, was getting ready to invade and pillage their community, and that he had gone out and added two higher-powered rifles and ammunition to his personal arsenal. It seemed to me a completely insane idea, but the people around him didn’t disagree with him. And of course, nothing ‘Antifa’-related — or anything else of the sort — ever happened.
Nothing of the sort has ever happened. But we hear about ‘it’ happening all the time.
Just to double-check my own experience and research, I asked ChatGPT to provide a summary of what is known of the threat profile of Antifa nationwide. Below is the ChatGPT summary completed just a few days ago (as of this writing).
Reading through this, one can easily see that, despite all of the hype and demonization around Antifa by the first Trump administration and now again, federal law enforcement has never found Antifa to be anything more than than “a loosely defined tendency or ideology;” and certainly never believed Antifa to be a terrorist threat. And in some instances where federal officials tried to prosecute individuals as lawless Antifa terrorists, ChatGPT reports that, “Federal prosecutors later dropped most cases, and subsequent reporting and court findings criticized prosecutorial handling of evidence.”
Here’s the full short summary:
ChatGPT:
“Here’s the short version: in the U.S., “Antifa” has been treated by law-enforcement primarily as a loosely defined tendency or ideology, not as a single organization that can be “raided.” When police or federal agents have taken action, it’s almost always been tied to specific suspects and alleged crimes at particular protests (usually under labels like “anarchist violent extremists”), rather than to membership in “Antifa.”
“A concise timeline of notable actions
Pacific Northwest FBI/JTTF raids (2012): FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force agents executed search warrants on several self-described anarchist activists around Seattle/Portland; grand-jury subpoenas followed. The raids seized computers, clothing, and literature. These actions were framed around anarchist/black-bloc activity, not a formal “Antifa” organization.
Inauguration Day mass arrests (Washington, DC – Jan. 20, 2017): DC police “kettled” and arrested 200+ protesters at the “Disrupt J20” march (often described as anti-capitalist/anti-fascist). Federal prosecutors later dropped most cases, and subsequent reporting and court findings criticized prosecutorial handling of evidence.
Berkeley protest policing (2017): Multiple clashes at UC Berkeley events drew a heavy police response and arrests; some participants identified themselves (or were described by media/police) as “antifa” or black-bloc. Individual assault cases (e.g., the “bike-lock” assault) were prosecuted, but there was no broad federal “Antifa” conspiracy case.
Summer–Fall 2020 protest cycle (especially Portland, OR):
Federal deployment (“Operation Diligent Valor”): DHS sent ~755 federal officers to protect the Portland federal courthouse amid nightly clashes; the DHS Inspector General later reviewed the operation and noted preparation/training gaps.
Federal charges tied to courthouse attacks: The U.S. Attorney in Oregon brought dozens of protest-related cases (arson, assault on federal officers, etc.). These were charges against individuals at events, not against an organization.
Attorney General/DOJ posture: AG Barr publicly labeled violence “instigated and carried out by Antifa and similar groups” as domestic terrorism and activated FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces; contemporaneous reporting noted DOJ did not actually allege ties to an organized “Antifa” group in case summaries.
FBI Director’s distinction: Christopher Wray testified that “Antifa is an ideology, not an organization,” reflecting why you don’t see organizational conspiracy indictments or “Antifa” search-warrant packages per se.
Michael Reinoehl manhunt (Sept. 2020): A federally led fugitive task force (including U.S. Marshals and FBI) shot and killed Reinoehl—an anti-fascist activist suspected in a Portland homicide—during an arrest operation in Washington State. Litigation and investigations followed; courts ultimately declined to fault the task force.
Since 2021: Federal strategy documents continue to treat relevant criminal activity under the umbrella of anti-government/anti-authority violent extremism (anarchist violent extremism), not “Antifa” as a unitary group. Academic and government analyses caution against conflating the two.
“About “designations” or nationwide crackdowns
U.S. law does not provide a mechanism to designate domestic organizations as terrorist groups (unlike for foreign organizations). That’s why, despite political rhetoric across years, federal cases have targeted specific crimes/actors, not “Antifa” as an entity.
(Current events) In September 2025, the White House issued an executive order claiming to “designate Antifa” as a domestic terrorist organization. Legal analysts and reporters note such an order has uncertain legal effect for the reason above and largely directs prioritization/surveillance rather than creating new crimes.
“Bottom line:
Across the last several decades, there have been searches, raids, arrests, and federal charges focused on individuals (often described as anarchist/black-bloc/“antifa-aligned”) in connection with specific violent acts at protests—not organizational conspiracy cases against a formal “Antifa” group. Federal posture has alternated between aggressive rhetoric and conventional case-by-case prosecution, with the FBI repeatedly stating that “Antifa” describes an ideology or loose milieu rather than a prosecutable organization.
If you want, I can dig up a few representative case dockets from different cities to illustrate the pattern (charges, outcomes, and whether the cases stuck).”
[End of ChatGPT report]
In short, there is no such organized group as Antifa.
Antifa is a right-wing bogeyman. It is a classic example of right-wing propaganda and conspiracy theory designed to create fear and loathing among the American people and sometimes, by imputing to it the specter of black hordes coming to murder, rape, and pillage white neighborhoods and families.
But now, with the assassination of the inimitably toxic right-wing youth groomer, Charlie Kirk, President Trump is leading the charge to cast Antifa as a powerful leftwing organization that is responsible for everything done by anyone and everyone who contributes to protesting and resisting Trump and his SCOTUS-majority-aided-and-abetted corrupt authoritarian power grab.
All of us now — all anti-fascists, all anti-authoritarians, all anti-Trump activists, and all who are pro-democracy and pro-decency — are being painted with the broadest of brushes as being part and parcel of a terrorist organization and effort — Antifa terrorism — that advocates and causes violence that is an imminent threat to domestic peace and tranquility and to national security.
To this end, Donald Trump, the President of the United States, has now issued a proclamation stating Antifa is a “Domestic Terrorist Organization.”
Trump has now ‘officially designated’ Antifa as an all-encompassing movement of the radical left (including even a conspiracy of comedians who joke and poke at him to generate their laughs). He claims that it is coordinating massive illegal and violent actions and provocations (this is not a joke . . . ) designed to foment terroristic assaults on the way Donald Trump chooses to govern, including the way forces like ICE (or whoever those thugs are) choose to lawlessly disappear people, the way that Trump is furiously deconstructing independent agencies, oversight, and expertise that he disfavors, and the way he is corruptly amassing enormous personal wealth, cutting deals with the world’s dictators, and raising a personal army of right-wing militias and newly-hired loyalist federal agents.
And what or who is the greatest threat to the United States of America?
Here is the official White House explanation of Trump’s September 22, 2025 Presidential Memoradum designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization:
DESIGNATING ANTIFA AS A DOMESTIC TERRORIST ORGANIZATION: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Order to designate Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization.
The Order notes that Antifa is a militarist, anarchist enterprise that calls for the overthrow of the U.S. government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law—using illegal means, including violence and terrorism, to accomplish these goals.
The Order directs the Federal government to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle all illegal operations conducted by Antifa or any person claiming to act on behalf of Antifa. It also calls for investigating, disrupting, and dismantling the funding sources behind such operations.
DISMANTLING ANTIFA’S USE OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE: Antifa engages in coordinated efforts to obstruct enforcement of Federal laws, with the goal of achieving policy objectives by coercion and intimidation – this is domestic terrorism.
Antifa has engaged in armed standoffs with law enforcement, organized riots, violently assaulted ICE and other law enforcement officers, and engages in routine doxing of political figures and activists, threatening public safety.
ICE officers are now facing a 1000% increase in assaults against them.
An Antifa-affiliated group in Portland, Oregon, doxed ICE officers, publishing their names, pictures, and personal addresses online.
A journalist was violently assaulted by Antifa protestors while reporting on a protest in Portland.
Using pepper spray, baseball bats, and tasers, Antifa members violently attacked Trump supporters during a Patriot March in Pacific Beach, California.
The group recruits and radicalizes young Americans to engage in this violence and works to conceal identities of members and funding sources, frustrating law enforcement efforts.
Antifa’s efforts to advance political violence and suppress lawful political speech must be stopped.
This ‘Memorandum’ is both an absurdity and a monstrosity.
If the president of the United States were able to somehow use the power of the federal government to enforce the sentiments encapsulated here, never a word of truth could be safely spoken in America.
Neither this monstrous memorandum, nor the sentiments expressed therein, can be allowed to stand or to be enforced.
Antifa is not the radical threat that America faces. It is not a terrorist organization. It’s not even an organization. It’s not a terrorist movement because there is no such movement.
Antifa, for a few people and for a brief moment meant, “I am standing a vigil against fascism.” There was no conspiracy on ‘the left,’ only a broad commitment by Americans to resist authoritarianism and right-wing thuggery. That is a noble cause to which America and Americans for generations have been devoted.
If being antifascist is a form of terrorism, then every American who fought in or supported the war effort in WWII was a terrorist.
If being against authoritarianism is terrorism, then every American who supported America and the West against the Soviet Union and Stalinism was a terrorist.
The biggest threat to America’s domestic security and tranquility is the stunted and deranged mind of Donald J. Trump.
Donald Trump will never understand that the only thing that can make America great is great Americans.
Anti-fascism and anti-authoritarianism are the commitments and sacrifices that have made Americans great and who have thereby made America great, again and again.
Donal Trump knows nothing about commitment and sacrifice. Donald Trump has never known anything greater than his pathological narcissistic and his great obsession with gold.1 Donald Trump will never understand the commitment and sacrifice that great Americans make and that thereby makes America great.
Trump has repeatedly called those who have made the greatest commitments and the ultimate sacrifice, “suckers.” He even asked one of his top advisors, a general, “Why did they do it?”
Antifa is a right-wing trope being weaponized to pit Americans against one another and to repress freedom of speech and the right to assemble peaceably to petition for the redress of grievances.
Making Americans hate again cannot make America great again.
The only way to make America made great again is to honor and uplift Americans’ commitments and sacrifices to the cause of freedom.
Donald Trump will never do so because he doesn’t have a trace of real American greatness in him.
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Jon.
See a previous post of mine suggesting that Donald Trump has ever and only really wanted to be like the arch-villain, Goldfinger, in the James Bond series, whose ‘superpower’ is that everything he touches turns to gold:
Yes, "Antifa is a right-wing trope being weaponized to pit Americans against one another and to repress freedom of speech and the right to assemble peaceably to petition for the redress of grievances."
It is also a well-meaning cosplay, which yes the fascists use as Jon describes.
But it is also a stance. Antifascist.
I'm anti-fascist.
Aren't you?
It’s power and terror promoting.
Gaslighting with a power torch!
Drunk on power.