There is no such formal entity called antifa, yet the US president has designated it an ‘anarchist enterprise’, raising concerns from civil liberties experts
In a broadly worded executive order issued Monday evening, Donald Trump declared “antifa”– the decentralized antifascist movement – as a “domestic terrorist organization”.
With his order, Trump is delivering red meat to his base after years of drumming up fears around leftwing activism, which his administration has characterized as a dangerous scourge.
Following the murder of rightwing commentator Charlie Kirk at a speaking event in Utah earlier this month, Trump and his allies vowed an aggressive crackdown on leftists, despite the fact that prosecutors are yet to surface any evidence that the shooter was aligned with far-left groups.
In his order, Trump describes antifa as a “militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law”. In a statement he called it a “SICK, DANGEROUS RADICAL LEFT DISASTER.”
