Trump says he would designate Antifa, other left-wing groups as ‘domestic terrorists’
By Kevin Liptak, Adam Cancryn, CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump said Monday he’d consider naming far-left anti-fascism group Antifa as domestic terrorists, previewing a plan to crack down on what he’s cast as a widespread network of left-wing radicals inciting violence.
“It’s something I would do, yeah,” he said when asked whether he would assign a domestic terrorism label to Antifa, saying he would proceed if he found support from Cabinet officials and the Justice Department.
It wasn’t clear who or what exactly Trump would designate; Antifa is a loosely organized movement without a distinct leader, membership lists or structure.
His comments come as a host of administration officials have signaled in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination that they’ll be targeting what they claim is a coordinated left-wing effort to incite violence. So far, no evidence has publicly emerged that the alleged assassin was working as part of a larger, coordinated effort.
But the president appeared intent on targeting left-wing groups whose activity he claims has led to violence.
“Antifa is terrible. There are other groups,” he said in the Oval Office. “We have some pretty radical groups, and they got away with murder,” he added without citing any evidence or elaborating.
Trump also said he’d been discussing with Attorney General Pam Bondi the prospect of bringing racketeering charges against left-wing groups that he claimed were funding left-wing agitators.
“I’ve asked Pam to look into that in terms of RICO, bringing RICO cases,” he said, adding: “They should be put in jail, what they’re doing to this country is really subversive.”
Deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, also speaking in the Oval Office, cited a “network of organizations” that he accused of launching riots, specifically naming Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
“The key point the president has been making is somebody is paying for all of this. This is not happening for free, and so out of the president’s direction, the attorney general is going to find out who is paying for it, and they will now be criminally liable for paying for violence,” Miller added.
Trump on Monday repeated his frequent refrain that political violence comes from the left, while downplaying instances of violence or violent rhetoric that have targeted Democrats.
“The radical left causes tremendous violence, and they seem to do it in a bigger way,” he said.
Pressed on why he didn’t lower American flags after the the murder of Minnesota Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman, Trump said he would have had he been asked.
“I would have done that, but the governor of Minnesota didn’t ask me,” he said, referring to Democratic Gov. Tim Walz. “I would have done that gladly.”
Trump ordered flags flown at half-staff immediately following Kirk’s killing.
Hortman and her husband were killed in an attack over the summer in what Walz has since called a “politically motivated assassination.”
In the immediate aftermath of that shooting, Trump refused to call the governor, who ran on the 2024 presidential ticket, to offer condolences, instead calling him “whacked out” and suggesting that talking with him was unnecessary.
“I could be nice and call, but why waste time?” Trump said in June.
This story has been updated with additional information.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
