U.S. President Donald Trump, on Wednesday (September 17, 2025), declared that he was going to designate the anti-fascist movement known as “Antifa” as a terrorist organisation. This is the second time Mr. Trump has made such a declaration; the first was in May 2020 in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter-driven protests over the murder of African-American George Floyd. This time around, the announcement came amid the fallout of the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Mr. Trump’s administration has sought to up the ante against left-wing activism following the assassination.
Antifa, short for “anti-fascist”, from all accounts, is not really an organisation, but more of an ideological and political movement that functions as autonomous groups and individuals who share the goal of confronting groups and people who they identify as fascist, including those who are white supremacists or have far-right beliefs or have engaged in extremist actions. The movement does not have any command structure or central leadership. Legal experts such as Mary McCord, former acting head of the Justice Department’s national security division, have been quoted by the New York Times saying that there is no legal mechanism to designate such a decentralised movement as a terrorist organisation.
