What is antifa; what does Trump’s ‘major terrorist’ label mean?

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United States President Donald Trump announced late on Wednesday that he was designating the left-wing activist movement, antifa, a “terrorist” organisation.

Here is what we know:

What has Trump said about antifa?

On his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote: “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.”

He added: “I will also be strongly recommending that those funding Antifa be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices.”

What is antifa?

Antifa, which is short for “anti-fascists”, is not a single group. It is a loosely organised, decentralised, left-wing collective of organisations and activists in the US that opposes right-wing and fascist ideologies.

“Antifa is a kind of politics, not a specific group,” US-based historian Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, told Al Jazeera. “In the same way that there are feminist groups but feminism is not, itself, a group.

“Any group that calls itself antifa and promotes the basic principles of militant antifascism is an antifa group. There is no general headquarters or leader to get official recognition from.”

The movement is secretive, and it is impossible to determine the exact number of members, their identities, or their leadership, as this information is not public.

The movement started gaining momentum in 2016, before Trump’s first term. However, activist groups were using the term “antifa” before that.

Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian ideology marked by dictatorial rule, intense nationalism, suppression of dissent, and strict control over society. It rejects democracy, and historical examples include Benito Mussolini’s Italy and Nazi Germany of the 1930s.

In fact, the word antifa can be traced back to an anti-Nazi German phrase from 1946.

In 2007, an organisation called Rose City Antifa was founded in Portland, Oregon. The members of the group wear all black and remain anonymous. They “dox” – or reveal personal information – about public figures on the right. Other organisations employ similar tactics.

What major incidents has antifa been involved in?

While people and groups aligned with the antifa ideology have participated in many protests and counterprotests, a few incidents stand out.

Chicago restaurant attack, 2012

A group of 18 masked people carrying steel batons and hammers stormed a suburban Chicago family restaurant, attacking what they claimed was a meeting of white supremacists.

Five of the men were apprehended and charged with aggravated battery, mob action and criminal damage to property.

Berkeley protests, 2017

A series of rallies and demonstrations descended into violent clashes between Trump supporters and black-clad, mask-wearing antifa protesters in Berkeley, California, throughout the year.

The first violent incident occurred during a protest on February 1 against Trump supporter Milo Yiannopoulos, who was due to give a speech at the university.

Pro-Trump rallies on March 4, April 15 and April 27 also ended in violence between Trump supporters and antifa activists.

On August 27, a “Say No to Marxism” rally was cancelled in light of the previous violence but Trump supporters and antifa protesters arrived nevertheless and clashed.

Many injuries were reported and arrests were made. Police confiscated weapons, including baseball bats, bricks and metal pipes.

Charlottesville protests, 2017

In August 2017, far-right protesters organised a “Unite the Right” protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, against the removal of a statue of Confederate icon General Robert E Lee.

In response to these protests, scores of counterprotesters stormed the protest site in Charlottesville. These people came from varied backgrounds: while some of them were residents rallying against white supremacy, others carried signs denouncing fascism, capitalism and racism.

Twenty members of one such group, Redneck Revolt, which was founded in 2016 and calls itself anti-racist and anti-fascist, carried rifles and formed a secure perimeter around the counterprotesters.

Left wing protesters, some affiliated with Antifa, hold a counter protest against right wing protesters participating in a political rally on July 25, 2021 in New York City.

Who funds antifa?

Since antifa is not a cohesive group, there is no way of identifying and collating a list of financiers of the movement, as it comprises several autonomous groups with varied funding sources, which are often not made public.

“Speaking of ‘antifa’ in the singular is misleading and plays into Trump’s efforts to repress the left,” said Bray. “He is trying to promote the common right-wing conspiracy theory that there are shadowy financiers like George Soros playing puppet master behind everything the left does.

“The reality is that antifa groups do not have large budgets at all, and what they have is basically crowdsourced or generated from members themselves. It’s mostly for bail, really.”

Can Trump designate the antifa movement as a ‘terrorist’ organisation?

It is unclear how Trump would designate antifa a “terrorist” organisation from a logistical standpoint because it is not a singular, monolithic group. Critics have, therefore, raised questions as to how a “terrorism” designation would be enforced and handled, given the amorphous nature of antifa supporters.

During Trump’s first presidential term, he also threatened to designate antifa as a terrorist organisation, but his Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) director at the time, Christopher Wray, said this would be difficult. In testimony that year, he said antifa is 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.

The US secretary of state is authorised to designate foreign groups as foreign terrorist organisations (FTOs). The secretary does not require congressional approval to make this designation, but is required to inform Congress seven days before an organisation is designated, according to a Government Accountability Office report from 2015.

However, while the US Constitution allows the government to designate foreign groups, it lacks a specific statute that would allow it to designate a domestic group as a terrorist organisation.

Mary McCord, a former senior Department of Justice official, told Al Jazeera during Trump’s first term that his attempts to designate antifa would “raise significant First Amendment concerns”.

Historian Bray said: “If this is more than just bluster, as it has been for the past eight years whenever Trump or another Republican leader calls for ‘antifa’ to be declared a terrorist group, then it will manifest itself as a blanket excuse for the regime to crack down on anyone to the left of them under the elusive rubric of ‘antifa’.”

What does it mean when a foreign group is designated as ‘terrorist’?

It is illegal under US law to give money or provide funding to an FTO. The US can also freeze any assets held by members of the organisation in the US banking system. The members also face financial sanctions.

Members of FTOs who are not citizens of the US are banned from entering the country.

Has Trump targeted antifa before?

Yes, in May 2020, Trump posted on his X account: “The United States of America will be designating Antifa as a Terrorist Organization.”

That was back when Trump and Democrat Joe Biden were campaigning for the 2020 presidential election, which Biden won. Trump’s post also came after widespread protests against the killing of a Black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, had broken out in several US states.

On the evening of January 5, 2021 – the day before Biden’s election win was due to be certified in Washington, DC – Trump posted on X, then called Twitter: “Antifa is a Terrorist Organization, stay out of Washington. Law enforcement is watching you very closely!”

Then, thousands of people stormed the US Capitol, protesting against the 2020 election results on January 6, 2021.

At the time, Axios reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, that Trump had tried to privately blame “antifa people” for storming the US Capitol. The news outlet reported that Trump said this during a call with then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. The report added that McCarthy responded: “It’s not Antifa, it’s MAGA. I know. I was there.”

Why is Trump talking about antifa now?

Trump’s latest statement comes just a week after the fatal shooting of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.

Kirk was shot dead in front of a crowd of 3,000 people while he was speaking at a university event in Utah on September 10. After a federal manhunt that lasted 33 hours, the authorities arrested 22-year-old Tyler Robinson for the shooting. Utah Governor Spencer Cox told US media that Robinson was “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology“.

Robinson appeared in court via a virtual link on Tuesday and was charged with seven offences, including aggravated murder and felony discharge of a firearm.

Some US conservative social media accounts have been posting claims that Robinson was affiliated with the antifa movement.

For example, one X account called US Homeland Security News, but unaffiliated with the US government, posted a fake image of Robinson, which has been edited to look like he is wearing a “Harris Walz” T-shirt, referencing Trump’s Democratic challenger in the 2024 election, Kamala Harris, and her running mate, Tim Walz. However, in the original photo, Robinson was wearing a plain T-shirt.

The account captioned the photo: “He is a Democrat militant antifa leftist. No question.”

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