Antifa is not a formal organization—it’s more of an organizing strategy whose lose-knit followers rely on direct action, rather than policy initiatives. It has no official membership roles or leaders. Nevertheless, Donald Trump spent the weekend pushing for the nebulous leftist movement to be designated a terrorist organization after unrest broke out in cities across the U.S. in response to George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police. “The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization,” the president tweeted on Sunday, seemingly searching for a scapegoat.
Antifa’s wholly disorganized structure aside, the U.S. has no domestic terrorism law in place, meaning the federal government lacks the authority to apply such a designation to groups operating within the country. But the president has never been overly concerned with logic when promoting counter-narratives. Trump’s antifa ravings quickly caught on, his supporters falling in line. Following his tweet, Attorney General William Barr released a statement asserting that “violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly.” Trump and Barr’s comments suggest that pursuing a terrorism designation for antifa is not their actual goal. Rather, their rhetoric casts protesters as dangerous criminals, and serves as a justification for police to ramp up tactics against them.
Even as police violence toward Black Lives Matter demonstrators has escalated day by day—with documented cases of officers unleashing rubber bullets, tear gas, pepper spray, and flash bangs; beating down and violently arresting peaceful protesters; and, in at least one instance, using SUVs to plow through crowds—Trump urged governors on a Monday call to crack down more aggressively. Later, in the Rose Garden, Trump threatened to deploy the military if governors don’t send in the national guard to quell protests. “We are ending the riots and lawlessness that has spread throughout our country,” Trump said. “We will end it now.”
Republican officials have jumped on Trump’s domestic terrorism warning to argue for even more stringent measures. Close Trump ally Representative Matt Gaetz tweeted that the new label means antifa protesters should now be hunted “down like we do [terrorists] in the Middle East.” (Gaetz’s tweet earned a warning label from Twitter noting that it was glorifying violence.) Senator Tom Cotton took it a step further, insisting that it was time for the Army to deploy the “101st Airborne Division,” as local law enforcement cannot quell the protests. “And, if necessary, the 10th Mountain, 82nd Airborne, 1st Cav, 3rd Infantry—whatever it takes to restore order,” he added, using the wartime phrase “no quarter”—i.e., take no prisoners—to suggest that “insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters” should be shown no mercy. Trump endorsed Cotton’s bloodlust. “100% Correct. Thank you Tom!” the president wrote, sharing the Arkansas Republican’s tweet.
Rather than addressing the nation directly or attempting a public call for unity, Trump has spent much of the crisis live-tweeting Fox News’ protest commentary while holed up in the White House. His news outlet of choice has cherry-picked protest scenes to showcase the worst offenders—coverage Trump has referenced in calling protesters “THUGS” and warning, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”–a line popularized by notable segregationists in the 1960s during police crack downs on civil rights protesters. Fox & Friends weekend cohost Pete Hegseth echoed the president’s demand for more aggressive law enforcement tactics on Sunday, suggesting that to “quell” the chaos in the streets, officers must loosen the rules of engagement to allow for any “actions necessary to take on Antifa, domestic terrorist groups like that,” and aired conspiracy theories about the supposed real motivations of protesters. On Monday morning, Fox & Friends cohost Brian Kilmeade pitched a conspiracy theory about the supposed motivations of protesters. He wondered if the goal of the protesters was “to destroy every single city so that America, economically, can never get off its back the pandemic has put us on?” he said. “It’s hard to imagine in the short term we can possibly recover at all…. Who are these people coming in?”