Antifa Is Terrorism

For too long, Antifa has hidden behind the label of “activism.”

With ATIFA’s new terrorist designation, America is finally treating this violent, anarchist enterprise as the threat it truly is.

On September 22, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. This was not just another political maneuver. It was an overdue act of national self-defense. For years, Antifa has hidden behind the false shield of being “just an ideology” while carrying out organized campaigns of violence, intimidation, and anarchy. By finally calling it what it is — terrorism — the administration has taken a decisive step to protect the country from a movement that thrives on chaos and destruction.

The Violent Reality of Antifa

Antifa is not simply a loose coalition of protesters. It is a militarist, anarchist enterprise that uses violence as a political weapon. Its members have rioted in American cities, assaulted Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, doxed political opponents, and openly called for the overthrow of the United States government.

The assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was the tipping point. Investigators discovered ammunition casings marked with Antifa slogans, and the confessed killer left no doubt about his political motivations. This was not random violence. It was the logical result of a movement that glorifies attacking “fascists,” defines anyone who disagrees with it as a fascist, and then justifies bloodshed in the name of that twisted label.

The violence has not stopped. Just last week in Dallas, Texas, an armed attacker opened fire on an ICE detention center. The shooter, identified as Joshua Jahn, left behind a digital trail that raised serious concerns. A social media scrub uncovered that Jahn’s now-wiped Facebook page displayed communist and Antifa-style imagery. His profile photo showed an armed communist bearing the hammer and sickle with the words “GLORIOUS EXPOSITION, COMRADE.” At the scene, investigators recovered bullet casings etched with the words “anti-ICE.”

There is some evidence suggesting links to Antifa, but that evidence has not yet been fully substantiated. What has been confirmed is just as alarming. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated that Jahn was a copycat of Charlie Kirk’s assassin. FBI Director statements have added even more context, noting that Jahn may have been directly inspired by the Kirk killing. He had reportedly studied leftist ICE-tracking apps and left behind a note clarifying his intent: “Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think, ‘is there a sniper with AP rounds on that roof?’”

The attack appeared to target ICE agents but instead struck illegal migrants being held at the facility. It did not occur in isolation. Antifa, leftists, and even some Democrats have urged violent “direct action” against ICE, calling for DHS agents to be killed and facilities to be burned down. This is part of a longer campaign of violence against ICE facilities. In 2019, an Antifa gunman attempted to shoot up and blow up an ICE facility in Washington before being killed by police. More recently, in July 2025, North Texas Antifa attacked an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas, spraying the compound with gunfire.

Taken together, these incidents illustrate a disturbing trend. Antifa and its ideological allies view ICE agents as legitimate targets for assassination and terror campaigns. What happened in Dallas was not an aberration. It was the latest chapter in a years-long effort to intimidate and neutralize federal law enforcement through violence.

For years, Americans have watched Antifa smash windows, torch police cars, and assault political opponents while claiming immunity under the banner of “free speech.” But speech ends where terrorism begins. When groups organize to commit violence, intimidate communities, and undermine the rule of law, they forfeit any moral or legal defense.

A Necessary and Courageous Step

The executive order not only designates Antifa as a terrorist organization. It directs federal agencies to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle its operations. That means identifying funders, prosecuting agitators, and depriving the movement of the networks it relies on to spread mayhem.

Critics argue that the president lacks the legal authority to make such a designation. What they overlook is simple. The federal government already has the tools to target organized violence. Prosecutors do not need a new law to arrest rioters, arsonists, or assassins. What this order does is strip away the veil of ambiguity. It makes clear to law enforcement, to the courts, and to the American people that Antifa is not activism. It is terrorism.

And as of Saturday morning, September 27th, President Trump has gone even further. He deployed U.S. troops to Portland and ICE facilities nationwide to defend against anticipated Antifa attacks, authorizing the use of “FULL FORCE” if necessary. This is not symbolic. It is a concrete move to ensure federal facilities, law enforcement officers, and communities are not left defenseless in the face of escalating Antifa violence.

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For too long, Antifa has benefited from willful blindness. Some politicians dismissed it as “just an idea.” Its members hurled Molotov cocktails at police stations while the political class looked the other way. That blindness ended with the murder of Charlie Kirk. The administration’s action sends a clear message. The days of tolerance for left-wing political violence are over.

The SPLC’s Blind Spot

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was founded in 1971 by Morris Dees and Joseph Levin Jr. as a civil rights law firm dedicated to representing poor people and dismantling discrimination in the Deep South. Over the years, it built a reputation by using litigation to challenge white supremacy, expose violent hate groups, and defend marginalized communities. At its best, the SPLC fought real injustice and stood shoulder to shoulder with victims of bigotry.

Today’s SPLC is a shadow of its former self. Instead of focusing on true hate groups, it has turned its resources toward political smears and left-wing activism. Nowhere is that clearer than in its handling of Antifa. The SPLC has explicitly declined to list Antifa as a hate group. Its rationale is that Antifa targets “fascists” rather than immutable characteristics like race or religion. But this is a distinction without a difference. Violence is violence, and Antifa’s so-called “ideological” targets are often conservative politicians, religious leaders, and law enforcement officers.

The SPLC’s stance is not merely theoretical. In March 2023, SPLC staff attorney Thomas Jurgens was arrested in Atlanta during violent Antifa-style protests against a police training facility known as “Cop City.” Protesters threw rocks, bricks, and Molotov cocktails at police. The SPLC claimed Jurgens was a legal observer, not a participant. The optics of one of their own attorneys being caught in the middle of an Antifa riot confirmed for many critics what they had long suspected. The SPLC is far more lenient with left-wing extremism than with anything on the right.

Critics have also accused the SPLC of carrying water for Antifa by failing to condemn its violent tactics strongly enough, while eagerly listing dozens of conservative and Christian groups on its widely publicized “hate map.” In fact, the SPLC even targeted Turning Point USA, placing it on their controversial “hate group” list alongside the KKK and neo-Nazis.

“A cheap smear from a washed-up org that’s been fleecing scared grandmas for decades,” Kirk said. “They somehow still rake in over $100 million a year peddling their ‘hate map’ nonsense, sitting pretty in their Montgomery ‘Poverty Palace’ while crying about ‘hate’ to line their pockets. Even former staffers called their racket a ‘con.’ But it’s 2025, and nobody with a functioning brain buys their garbage anymore. The SPLC is a laughingstock, a hollowed-out husk of an organization that’s been exposed as a grift time and time again. They’re not just irrelevant — they’re a cautionary tale of how to torch your own credibility. Maybe someone should take a hard look at where all that ‘nonprofit’ money’s really going?’”

Even more concerning are reports that the SPLC helped fund the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, which has alleged ties to Antifa-aligned groups north of the border. These choices reflect a clear double standard. They indirectly provide Antifa cover under the guise of legitimacy.

And now a far more serious development has emerged. As of September 25th, the New York Times reported that six different U.S. Attorneys’ Offices have been directed to investigate George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. This organization has previously funded both Black Lives Matter and the Southern Poverty Law Center. The fact that federal prosecutors are now probing its activities raises urgent questions about whether powerful money networks have fueled extremist movements while cloaking themselves in the language of “civil rights.”

A Second Wave of Domestic Terrorism

America now faces what national security officials are calling a second wave of domestic terrorism. In the 1990s and early 2000s, the greatest concern came from radical militias and far-right extremists. Today, it is radical left-wing groups like Antifa and Armed Queers SLC that are increasingly emboldened, militant, and violent. These movements thrive on confrontation with police, demonize conservative voices, and romanticize bloodshed as a tool of revolution.

Even more alarming, this wave is colliding with the continuing threat from foreign terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS. Just recently, the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) issued a bulletin warning that al-Qaeda operatives have infiltrated U.S. cities and are planning multiple coordinated Mumbai-style attacks in tier-two sized cities. One of their intended targets is Level 1 trauma centers. This chilling revelation means America faces the possibility of simultaneous domestic and international terror strikes. The goal is to overwhelm emergency response and sow maximum chaos.

Law enforcement agencies are now stretched thin. They must guard against jihadist plots overseas while confronting radicalized domestic cells at home. This dual threat is one of the most complex security challenges since the aftermath of September 11. The United States cannot afford to minimize either danger.

Why This Matters

Opponents will claim this is an attack on free speech. That argument collapses under the weight of Antifa’s own actions. Free speech is about persuasion. Antifa is about coercion. It silences opponents not with ideas but with bricks, hammers, and bullets. That is not dissent. That is terror.

Recent documents and first-hand materials recovered from demonstrations and online repositories further undermine the claim that Antifa is merely a diffuse “idea.” A demonstrators’ guide to operational security — materials circulated within Antifa circles — recommends active steps to protect militants and to warn each other when law enforcement identifies individuals. One passage states, “If we ever see the police pointing at someone, especially commanding officers, we make sure to let that person know.” Taken in context, instructions like this show organized methods for identifying and protecting antifa leaders during confrontations. They are consistent with a functioning field structure in which activists coordinate, communicate, and protect one another during operations.

That language is important because it highlights coordination and mutual support that go beyond spontaneous protest. It shows how participants can use communications and collective procedures to avoid identification and to continue violent activity. That does not make every individual who attends a protest an extremist, but it does counter the narrative that Antifa lacks any command-and-control practices. These materials, combined with incidents like Charlie Kirk’s assassination and the Dallas ICE attack, point to an operational pattern that merits a serious, sustained law enforcement response.

Conclusion

By designating Antifa a terrorist organization, President Trump has done what should have been done long ago: acknowledge reality. Antifa is not a protest movement. It is not a harmless collection of activists. It is a radical, violent enterprise dedicated to destabilizing the United States from within.

The SPLC’s refusal to condemn Antifa for what it is has only made matters worse, enabling this cancer to spread under the guise of legitimacy. Now, at last, the federal government has drawn a clear line.

For national security professionals, the stakes are clear. We are facing an era where domestic extremism and foreign terrorism overlap, creating unprecedented risks for law enforcement and the American public. To confront this challenge, clarity is essential. And the clearest message possible is this: Antifa is a terrorist organization, and it will be treated as such.

Best Regards,
Ryan Geho