”I describe Antifa, a sick, dangerous, radical left-wing catastrophe, as a major terrorist organization”, Trump writes on his platform Truth Social during the night until Thursday, Swedish time.
”I will also strongly recommend that those who finance Antifa be thoroughly investigated”, the president writes in the same post.
The White House had not provided more information about the terrorist designation or what it will mean in practice, one hour after Trump's announcement.
Antifa – short for ”anti-fascists” – is used as an umbrella term for a number of groups within the extreme left, and is not a single organization, reports the news agency AP.
Donald Trump has several times stated that he wanted the movement to be classified as a terrorist organization. Already during Trump's previous term as president, he announced that the issue would be investigated.
In the aftermath of last week's murder of the right-wing debater Charlie Kirk, Trump again stated that he was considering designating Antifa as "domestic terrorists", reports CNN.
Trump's former FBI chief, Christopher Wray, stated in 2020 that Antifa is an ideology and not an organization. He believed that the movement lacks the hierarchical structure that would normally make it possible for the federal government to designate it as a terrorist group.
