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By Jordan King
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President Donald Trump says he will designate Antifa a "major terrorist organization," but he faces a legal problem in trying to do so: there is no federal process to list a domestic group as a "terrorist organization" the way the State Department lists foreign groups.
The president wrote on Truth Social on Thursday: "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. I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
But "Antifa is a dubious candidate for designation as a terrorist organization since the law only allows foreign terrorist groups to be designated as such," Georgetown professor Bruce R. Hoffman told Newsweek.
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Newsweek reached out to the White House, the State Department and the Department of Justice for comment.
Why It Matters
Antifa, short for "anti-fascists," is an umbrella term for multiple far-left groups and is not an official organization with any hierarchical structure, making it difficult to legislate over.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to make the terrorism designation, notably in 2020 when protests over George Floyd's murder shook the nation. His latest push comes against the backdrop of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot while speaking at an event in Utah on September 10.
In the aftermath of Kirk's death, Trump has slammed the "radical left," vowing to "fix" the "tremendous damage (done) to the country."
What To Know
Hoffman, who is also a senior fellow for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the Trump administration would have to change federal law in order to classify Antifa as a terrorist organization.
This could have longstanding consequences, with Malcolm Nance, a former U.S. Navy counter-terrorism intelligence operator, arguing in a post on X that this could set the stage to "designate ANY American as a terrorist."
Conversely, the move has the support of several Republicans, including House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris, who said the designation would "protect communities" and enable law enforcement to "investigate those who fund them and stop the lawlessness once and for all."
In 2020, Trump's former FBI director, Christopher Wray, told Congress, "Antifa is a real thing. It's not a group or an organization, it's a movement or an ideology."
Wray also highlighted that domestic terrorism is not a federal crime, explaining that in "domestic terrorism cases," the FBI pursues "explosive charges, firearms charges and rioting charges."
This has long been "a little bit of a legal predicament," Wray added.
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In 2017, during Trump's first term as president, 368,423 people signed a petition to classify Antifa as a terrorist organization. The White House responded that "there is currently no analogous mechanism for formally designating domestic terrorist organizations."
While there is a statutory definition for domestic terrorism in Title 18 of the U.S. Code, "no federal criminal provision expressly prohibits 'domestic terrorism,'" according to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report titled "Understanding and Conceptualizing Domestic Terrorism: Issues for Congress" that came out in December 2023.
"While DT (domestic terrorism) is defined in federal statute, the term domestic terrorist is not used to officially label any group (as it is with foreign terrorist organizations)," the guidance says.
For a group to be added to the U.S. State Department's Foreign Terrorist Organization List, which includes ISIS and Al-Qaeda, it has to be a "foreign organization," according to the latest Congress guidelines issued this month.
What People Are Saying
Terrorism scholar Bruce R. Hoffman told Newsweek: "Antifa, in any event, is not an organization, has no identifiable leadership or command and control structure or finances—in other words, the terrorist organizational attributes that designation is designed to undermine and dismantle. In sum, there is no legal way, at least for now, that antifa can actually be designated a terrorist organization, except rhetorically."
U.S. intelligence veteran Malcolm Nance, on X: "You cannot designate an idea as a terrorist group. There is no organization called ANTIFA. There is no leadership or funding path. There is no membership. Also there is no law in American to charge terrorism. Ask Luigi. What he is doing is setting the stage to designate ANY American as a terrorist. That's Fascism."
Maryland Representative Andy Harris, on X: "President Trump is right. ANTIFA is a dangerous, radical group that thrives on chaos and violence. Rightfully declaring them a terrorist organization will help protect our communities. It's time to investigate those who fund them and stop the lawlessness once and for all."
Florida Senator Rick Scott, on X: "ANTIFA is like a group of arsonists masquerading as firefighters. Thank you, President Trump, for designating ANTIFA as a major terrorist organization."
What Happens Next
It remains to be seen how the Trump administration plans to implement the designation.
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