On September 22, President Donald Trump issued an executive order (EO) designating “Antifa” as a domestic terrorist organization. The EO lays out a broad range of actions targeting something that is not an organization but rather a decentralized movement. The White House described Antifa as a “militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government.”
Other accusations against the movement include using “illegal means” to unleash a “campaign of violence and terrorism nationwide.” According to the administration, this includes efforts to obstruct law enforcement with “armed standoffs” as well as “organized riots, violent assaults on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other law enforcement officers, and routine doxing of and other threats against political figures and activists.”
Without offering proof or examples of these claims, the EO signed by the president reads “I hereby designate Antifa as a ‘domestic terrorist organization.’”
“All relevant executive departments and agencies shall utilize all applicable authorities to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all illegal operations — especially those involving terrorist actions — conducted by Antifa or any person claiming to act on behalf of Antifa.”
This move’s full impact is so far unknown. The order appears more aimed at energizing Trump’s supporters and allies who have built a mountain of wild and unsubstantiated rhetoric around the supposed dangers of “Antifa.” Research in Europe and the US has repeatedly shown far-right inspired attacks to be deadlier. Research in 2020 found that one individual who self-identified as an antifascist had been linked to one homicide, while far-right extremists have been responsible for dozens in recent years. Far from a simple public relations win, the broadside against Antifa is really part of a push by the president and Republicans to cast their political opposition on the left as anti-American and violent.
The US designation is questionable, as the country does not have specific laws against domestic terrorism and does not maintain a list of domestic terrorist organizations. That means the designation can’t have the impact in the same way as individuals or groups designated as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO). A group given the FTO designation can have its US assets frozen, have non-citizen members barred from the country, and individuals and businesses can be prosecuted for providing “material support.” The FTO is a tool to cut off terrorist organizations financially, and it has largely been used against Islamic extremists (the designation has long been criticized for its lack of oversight, constitutionally shaky application, and the risk of misuse). It also requires an organization be domiciled abroad, not in the US.
During a “round table” on the subject of Antifa, held at the White House on October 08, 2025, Trump was asked if we would be willing to add Antifa to the list of FTOs. The President responded “I think that’s the kind of thing I’d like to do,” adding that the idea, “sounds good to me.”
What has resulted is a wave of support for a terrorist designation of Antifa at home and abroad to stop political opposition to authoritarian actions. With Hungary, known as an autocratic democracy, having put forward an official plan to designate Antifa as a terrorist group, right-wing populists holding political office in Poland and the Netherlands are indicating they want to do the same. This comes as extreme right-wing violence is being downgraded in places like Finland and Norway, while the US hacks and slashes its way through programs designed to prevent and investigate domestic far-right terrorism.
Following the EO, Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida) submitted a bill that echoed the language of Trump’s order. Titled the Stop ANTIFA Act, Scott claimed that “Antifa has gotten away with its evils and terrorized cities across our country for far too long” and that “domestic terrorists like Antifa [[are] wreaking havoc on our communities.” He did not provide any examples to support this claim.
On September 26, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement titled DHS is Fighting Back Against Antifa Violence. In a list that accompanies the article, allegedly containing a “non-exhaustive list of the arrests DHS has made to keep America safe from Antifa-aligned domestic extremism,” is the arrest of LaMonica McIver, a Democratic representative from New Jersey’s 10th congressional district.
McIver is facing charges of assaulting or impeding federal agents trying to arrest Newark Mayor Ras Baraka on May 9, 2025. The pair were conducting a site visit with other members of congress at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Newark. When federal agents moved to arrest Baraka outside of the facility, McIver and Reps. Rob Menendez (D-NJ) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) surrounded him in an attempt to intervene.
A shoving match broke out between protesters and law enforcement. The government alleges that McIver struck federal agents with her forearms. McIver has denied the charges, saying the indictment leaves out key details, is contradicted by video evidence, and ignores her right to inspect the facility.
The DHS statement claims that Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have contributed to “out-of-control riots” outside of ICE facilities by “comparing [ICE agents to] Nazis and falsely claiming they are ‘secret police’ who are ‘terrorizing our communities.’” Chicago has been targeted by Trump for his plan to deploy the military to major cities, regardless of objections from state and city governments.
On October 6, 2025, Trump indicated he might invoke the Insurrection Act if blocked by the courts from using the military in American cities like Chicago and Portland, Ore.
Hungary Follows Trump
On the heels of Trump’s announcement, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a close Trump ally, announced that he intends for Hungary to follow suit with an Antifa terrorist designation in a similar manner to the US.
First broaching the subject on a state radio station, Orbán declared on September 19, 2025, that the government had decided to declare the “Antifa organization a terrorist organization.”
Taking to Facebook after the broadcast, the Prime Minister doubled down on his statements.
“Hungary was an island of peace for a long time,” the statement read in Hungarian. “Now, hate and violence is knocking on our door.”
Accusing the left of beating people in the street, Orbán added that the only way to “suppress the politics of violence” was to “strike [Antifa] with the full strictness of law.”
The announcement was followed shortly by an official motion which appeared in the country’s Gazette the following day. Alongside the announcement, the government cited several incidents where antifascist networks were accused of committing criminal violence inside of Europe. This included mention of the German “Hammerbande” or “Hammer Gang,” which was alleged to have targeted 18 people believed to be neo-Nazis for assault between 2018 and 2020.
Hungary accused Italian European Parliament Member (MEP) Ilaria Salis of being part of the gang and assaulting three people during a 2023 clash between counter protesters and participants in the annual Day of Honour march in Budapest. The day is a celebration of a failed attempt by Nazi and Hungarian troops to escape a siege of Buda Castle by the Soviet Army. Many of the participants wear Nazi insignia and uniforms.
Salis has denied any involvement in the assault. Granted immunity while still awaiting trial after her election as an MEP, she could still face a potential 11 years in prison as the charges have not been dropped.
Under Orbán, Hungarian authorities have targeted media and critics as enemies of the state and systematically stripped away the rights of LGBTQ+ people, including the right to free assembly with a ban on Pride parades.
The Hungarian Antifa designation also points to France’s Offensive Révolutionnaire Antifasciste, which was accused of targeting members of the far-right for violence in 2023 and 2024 in the Toulouse area, as well as several instances in Italy.
The Orbán government went further, asking the European Union to add Antifa to its own list of terrorist entities. On September 20, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto posted a letter on X he had written to the Vice-President of the European Commission demanding action.
“Individuals and groups linked to the so-called Antifa ideology have carried out numerous terrorist attacks across the European Union, including in Germany, France, and Italy,” he wrote in English.
Orbán’s government often accuses left-wing politicians of attempting to destroy the country’s culture. Similar to Trump, Orbán has also relied on the specter of George Soros to help him win elections. Soros, a currency trader and philanthropist, has used his fortune to fund initiatives and organizations that work to preserve liberal democracy. He is also a central character in multiple far-right conspiracy theories that see Soros as a global puppet master working to subvert democracy. Orbán has repeatedly relied on spreading fear about demographic replacement and Soros’ supposedly unseen hand in global politics to help him win elections. This despite the fact that Orbán himself attended Oxford University on a Soros’ scholarship and worked briefly for Central European Research Group, which Soros funds.
Netherlands Targets Antifa
The Netherlands also has shown some political will to affix a terrorist designation to Antifa. On September 18, 2025, the Dutch Parliament concluded two days of debate on 60 different motions. Among them, a non-binding motion was put forward by the far-right populist party Forum voor Democratie (Forum for Democracy, FvD) MP Lidewij de Vos, and supported by far-right MP Geert Wilders with the Partij voor de Vrijheid (Party for Freedom, PVV), asking the government to designate “Antifa” in a similar manner to the United States.
In the motion, de Vos claimed that “Antifa cells in our country are also active in threatening politicians, gatherings, and disrupt, intimidate students and journalists and do not shy away from violence.”
De Vos is a member of the FvD party, whose leader, Thierry Baudet, has used his position to push the dangerous white supremacist Great Replacement conspiracy theory that has inspired several mass murders. In a March 2020 parliamentary debate, he said the EU was setting up a ferry service “to transfer immigrants from Africa to Europe, to weaken national identities so that there will be no more nation-states.”
The Great Replacement conspiracy theory alleges an international effort to purposefully replace European decedent people, orchestrated by a group of elites, often Jews. The Great Replacement theory has been cited by multiple perpetrators of mass casualty attacks, like the Christchurch shooter who killed 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand in 2019.
Baudet has also been known to tweet videos made by a women’s group called 120 Dezibel, which claims they are afraid of migrants and compare the lack of protection from them to the German attitude to the Holocaust after WWII. 120 Dezibel is associated with Generation Identity in Germany, which is a large transnational white nationalist network and perhaps the biggest proponent of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory.
Wilders’ party, the far-right PVV, are known for being one of the most anti-Muslim parties in Europe. Wilders has called the Koran a “fascist book” that should be banned like Mein Kampf. In 2016, he was convicted of insulting a racial group for chanting “fewer Moroccans” at a rally in March 2014. The conviction was upheld in 2021.
The motion does not provide examples of Antifa-based violence, or mention any particular antifascist group by name. Undeniably, the most recent and disturbing incident of political violence in the Netherlands came as far-right, anti-immigration protesters clashed with police outside of the Hague on September 20, only two days after the Antifa motion was being debated. According to law enforcement, 1,200 protesters gathered, organized by a far-right influencer, to protest the country’s asylum policy. Footage online shows burning police cars and law enforcement being pelted with rocks and bottles.
Police report arresting 30 people in connection with the protest.
Passing by a slim margin (76 in favor, 75 against), the motion to designate Antifa carries little legal power and does not constitute legislation or laws. It is a formal request of the government. Regardless, with Wilders’ and his party currently leading in the polls ahead of a late-October 2025 election, the ability to take more substantive action could increase in the future.
The Netherlands’ National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism and Security (NCTV) has said that “ Left-wing extremism is currently a limited threat of violence.”
Poland Considering Designating Antifa
The other government to at least throw some rhetorical weight behind the plan to designate Antifa as a terrorist entity is Poland, where conservative politicians and parties called on the government to follow Trump and the United States.
During a press conference on September 24, former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said he intended to appeal to Prime Minister Donald Tusk for Poland to move to designate Antifa. Ziobro is part of the ousted far-right Law and Justice Party (PiS) which lost to Tusk’s progressive Platforma Obywatelska (Civic Platform, PO) in 2023, after holding on to the position of Prime Minister for eight years, eight years in which women, immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community saw their rights restricted.
Giving his comments in front of an image honoring slain American conservative leader Charlie Kirk, Ziobro claimed that Kirk’s alleged killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, “identified himself with LGBT activists.” No connections between Robinson and left-wing groups have yet been discovered. Text messages allegedly between Robinson and his roommate indicated that the suspected shooter “had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”
The call mirrors Trump’s framing and feeds the escalating narrative portraying left-wing activists as enemies of the state.
Deprioritizing the Extreme Right
There have also been signals that there is a broader deprioritization of domestic extremism in other parts of Europe, especially far-right actions and violence.
In Finland, the national security service, Supo, has been revealed to have edited an article on its website discussing ethnonationalism and the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory. They also removed a reference to the 2019 terrorist attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, which cost 51 people their lives in a targeted attack against two mosques. The change directly follows comments by far-right Finns Party MP and Deputy Party Chair Teemu Keskisarja claiming that the country is experiencing a “population replacement” on national television.
Previously describing the great replacement as a “a central justification for far-right violence in recent years,” the update changed the language to “some perpetrators of terrorist attacks globally have cited the theory as justification for their actions.”
The section discussing the Christchurch attack noted that the perpetrator, Brenton Tarrant, justified the attack as a defense of the white race. He titled his 74-page manifesto “The Great Replacement.”
In 2023, three men in Finland were convicted of planning to use 3D-printed firearms to attack racial and religious minorities in the country. One of the men convicted in the case was reported to admire Tarrant and celebrated the anniversary of the Christchurch attack.
In Norway, the end of 2024 saw the risk of right-wing extremist violence or terrorism downgraded from high to moderate. Still considered to be one of the most significant national security threats in the country, the move was part of a broader lessening of the overall risk of terrorism in the country.
Hollowing Out Efforts Targeting Far-Right Violence
In the United States, there have been a series of dangerous policy changes, leadership appointments, and funding cuts the White House has enacted to hollow out the national security infrastructure when it comes to preventing and combating domestic extremism. This includes a “pause and review” on all grants and programs related to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a division of DHS, and its partners combating domestic violent extremism.
Far from the only recent change impacting FEMA’s programs, on August 5, 2025, employees received emails indicating they were being redirected toward another agency —in this case, ICE, under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). More than half of FEMA’s human resources department and 50 people from its security team have been temporarily reassigned for 90 days to aid ICE in vetting and processing new candidates.
Other branches of the DHS were not spared from cuts by the administration. In February, over 400 probationary DHS employees were fired. This includes the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3) which managed a series of programs that attempted to help communities and law enforcement identify and intervene with individuals at risk of carrying out violent action.
This is the same Center, including its $18 million grant program, that 22-year-old Thomas Fugate was appointed to lead, despite his lack of qualifications or relevant experience.
Approximately 20 percent of the CP3’s staff were cut in March, about eight positions that had been there for less than a year.
Inside the FBI, manpower and resources are being pulled off of far-right domestic extremism tracking and investigations and put to work focusing on street gangs, border enforcement, and supposed left-wing radicals.
Despite the support for the move inside and outside the United States from conservatives, criticism of these moves against Antifa are widespread. Regardless of what Trump says, Antifa is a series of networks interconnected by shared tactics and a broad philosophy rooted in the opposition to fascism and the far right. Unlike other terrorist groups designated by the United State, like the neo-Nazi Terrorgram Collective, which (somewhat successfully) sought to use media to inspire mass casualty events, antifascists are not connected to mass deaths, though they have engaged in property destruction at times and conflict with law enforcement. But they are generally individuals who share a philosophy, not an organization. For the Trump administration, none of this matters. The goal is to demonize anyone on the left as dangerous and anti-American.
