Washington, D.C., US – US President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order designating the left-wing Antifa movement a terrorist organisation, the White House said. The announcement comes in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

According to the order, Antifa was labelled a ‘domestic terrorist organisation’, because of a ‘pattern of political violence designed to suppress lawful political activity and obstruct the rule of law’.

Trump’s order directs federal agencies to investigate and dismantle the ‘militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government’.

US authorities can act against ‘any person claiming to act on behalf of Antifa, or for which Antifa or any person claiming to act on behalf of Antifa provided material support’, the order said.

What is the Antifa movement?

Antifa stands for anti-fascism or anti-fascist, and is derived from early 1930s Germany, where socialist ‘anti-fa’ groups stood against Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.

It is a left-wing political movement that also identifies as anti-racist, with many of its protests staged against white supremacy.

A decentralised movement, Antifa has no national leader and is made up of ‘independent, radical, like-minded groups and individuals’, according to a 2020 Congressional Research Service analysis.

What led to Antifa’s classification?

During an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office last week, Trump announced plans to label the movement as domestic terrorism, saying ‘Antifa is terrible’.

On September 10, Kirk, a prominent conservative activist with close ties to Trump, was assassinated while speaking on a college campus in Utah.

A 22-year-old technical college student was charged with Kirk’s murder.

Although investigators have not said whether the suspect was associated with any groups, Trump has blamed left-wing rhetoric for the assassination.

Order could curb free speech: Critics

The executive order did not specify how Trump would designate Antifa as a domestic terrorist organisation, as it is not eligible for inclusion on the State Department’s list of foreign terror organisations, alongside the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda.

The move could expand surveillance and financial tracking powers. However, legal experts say there is no precedent for labelling a domestic group as a terrorist organisation under US law.

At the same time, critics warn that the order risks targeting dissent and curbing free speech, while targeting Trump’s opponents.

Meanwhile, experts say that far-right violence remains the leading domestic extremist threat.

DW