Following U.S. President Trump’s announcement on September 17th that he would designate Antifa a “major terrorist organization,” Trump on Wednesday directed members of his cabinet to move forward with declaring the group a foreign terrorist organization. Such a designation would place Antifa alongside groups like MS-13, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Islamic State, setting a precedent for European countries weighing a similar terrorism label for the left-wing activists.
Labeling Antifa a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 would give the U.S. government expanded powers to go after not only activists but also financiers of the loosely organized group.
At a roundtable discussion about Antifa on Wednesday, Trump said,
The epidemic of left-wing violence and Antifa-inspired terror has been escalating for nearly a decade. At universities, Antifa has organized riotous mobs to attack campus speakers. I see it all the time. And these are—these are agitators, anarchists, and they’re paid.”
FBI chief Kash Patel assured the cabinet and gathered journalists that his agency is tracking down “all” money for Antifa and will “go after the criminals with a vengeance.”
An FTO designation would activate legal powers that were previously unavailable under domestic terrorism frameworks. It would make it a federal crime to provide “material support” to an FTO—like money, weapons, training, advice, or personnel—with penalties of up to 20 years in prison or life, if death results. Financial sanctions also take effect: banks must freeze any assets of a group under that designation, and Executive Order 13224—signed by former President George W. Bush after the September 11th, 2001 attacks—authorizes the blocking of transactions connected to such a group.
While Antifa’s decentralized nature limits the practical impact of such measures, the increased powers an FTO designation entails would open the door for going after international as well as domestic actors who support Antifa.
“We’re going to be very threatening to them, far more threatening to them than they ever were with us,” Trump said, “and that includes the people that fund them,” referring to Antifa terrorists.
On Thursday, the White House announced they had discovered that over $100 million in taxpayer funds and Democrat Party donations had been funneled to Antifa-linked organizations, including George Soros’ Open Society Foundation.
