U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order declaring Antifa as "a domestic terrorist organization," a step some experts say may be lacking in legal authority.
"President Donald J. Trump is right: the violence problem is on the Left. That's why he just designated Antifa -- a network of Radical Left terrorists that aim to overthrow the government through violence and agitation -- as a domestic terrorist organization," the White House said in a document.
The statement also pointed out instances of the movement's "long history of terrorizing our communities," including attacking U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, police officers, attendees of right-leaning political rallies, and Trump supporters.
The order directs the federal government to "investigate, disrupt, and dismantle all illegal activity" conducted by Antifa or on behalf of Antifa. It also orders "sensible investigatory and prosecutorial measures against individuals who finance such activity."
"Antifa's terror is part of the trend of Radical Left violence that has permeated the nation in recent years, incited by constant lies and vicious attacks against Republicans from unhinged Democrat politicians, well-funded leftist organizations, and their allies in the media," said the document, adding that conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed by a "Radical Left terrorist."
"There is no legal authority to actually designate a domestic group as a terrorist organization even assuming that antifa is an organization and not just an ideology," former acting head of the Justice Department's national security division Mary McCord said to The New York Times.
A report by The Washington Post also pointed out that the United States has no official legal process for officially naming domestic terror organizations and warned that the order might be used as a pretext for further repression against the political left.
In his initial term in 2020, Trump also pledged to label the "Antifa" movement as "a terrorist organization," mostly because of countrywide protests that broke out after African American George Floyd was killed by the police. Nevertheless, no tangible actions were taken at the time.
Trump's new executive order is amid a heated national discussion about political violence following the death of Charlie Kirk. Responding to the Democrats' arguments that both the left and right are to blame for political violence, Trump recently declared that "most of the violence is on the left."
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