Antifa, short for “anti-fascist,” is a network of violent far-left activists whose political view is typically a form of communism. Their typical uniform, known as black bloc, includes all-black clothing, helmets, and masks to hide their identities.
Antifa’s footprint is international, which was demonstrated this week when Antifa members joined violent street protests in Milan, Italy.
In the U.S., Antifa has cells across the country but is especially known in the radically far-left Pacific Northwest, where it has emerged as political muscle in and around Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon.
The group Rose City Antifa, which maintains its own website, is believed to be the largest and most organized Antifa group in the Pacific Northwest.
A well-known Antifa tactic is using street demonstrations to blend in with other far-left groups and directly attack law enforcement officers. One of the most recent examples is the summer-long attacks against ICE agents outside an ICE facility in Portland. Those nightly attacks, which stretched from June to July, included more than 20 arrests and Department of Justice charges for assaulting federal officers.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Antifa members have also doxed ICE agents, who live in the Portland area, and put up "wanted" posters in the city.
On Sept. 5, Trump called the ICE facility attacks in Portland “unbelievable” and told reporters those “paid agitators” will be “wiped out” if he sends the National Guard into the city.
On Monday, President Trump signed a two-part executive order to fight Antifa. The first part describes Antifa’s history of violent, political-oriented activity that remains murky because its members hide their identifies as well as their funding. That mix of violence and secrecy meets the definition of domestic terrorism, the order states, which is why part two says Antifa is declared a “domestic terrorist organization.” That designation gives law enforcement authorities the power to investigate and dismantle Antifa’s operations.
Despite the history of Antifa violence, the Left’s reaction this week is to conclude Trump's real target is the Democratic Party and his political enemies.
"They're going to try to create a new classification, for anybody on the left who opposes Trump, as suddenly a member of Antifa," Chuck Todd, the former MSNBC anchor, suggested in a podcast.
Todd said he reached that conclusion because Antifa is too loosely organized to be designated a terrorist group.
“I don’t even know what Antifa is,” Todd told a show guest.
That quote was compared to Todd’s 2017 interview, on MSNBC, when he interviewed author Mark Bray. Bray, who had researched Antifa and supports its goals, had written the book “Antifa: The Anti-fascist Handbook."
In the preface of the book, Bray states 50 percent of his proceeds will go to the “International Anti-Fascist Defense Fund," an international Antifa group.
This week, a Democrat lawmaker also suggested a dictator-like Trump is pretending to investigate Antifa when his real target is American citizens. Reacting to the executive order, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss) suggested it “serves no purpose” because Antifa has no “defined organizational structure or leadership,” even though Antifa’s leaders are likely known to local and federal authorities.
Because Antifa can’t be investigated as a terrorist group, Rep. Thompson reasoned, doing so is an “excuse” for Trump to “stifle dissent, investigate anyone – or any group – they don’t like, punish their enemies, and potentially label and American they want as a terrorist.”
Thompson was making that dictator-like claim about Trump as the Democrat’s ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee.
Thompson’s claim of a disorganized group was challenged by Republican senator, Markwayne Mullin. The senator told Fox News the Democrat lawmaker was “flat wrong” for claiming Antifa is too loosely organized to be investigated.
“Somebody is organizing it. Somebody is sending out the information. Somebody is funding it,” the Senator reasoned.
By designating Antifa a terrorist group, Sen. Mullen concluded, federal authorities can trace the funding, and fill out an organization chart, for a terrorist group that Rep. Thompson claims doesn’t exit.
Talk show host knows Antifa well
Reacting to Trump’s executive order, Seattle-based radio host Jason Rantz told his audience this week he has walked among Antifa members in his own city.
“Antifa is indeed an idea. That is true,” he said. “I know that they’re a group because I infiltrated them for two years. I reported on them for many years.”
Describing its members, Rantz said their ages typically range from 18 to 30, and most are white. Many of them come from wealthy families, he said, and have rejected capitalism and embrace communism.
Rantz also said most are “social outcasts” who have created their own violent club that is their new family.
The talk show host jokingly asked how he knows they’re Antifa members. The big clue, he said, is they shout “Antifa!” and carry flags with the word “Antifa” on them.
