President Trump hosted a roundtable of administration officials and conservative influencers to highlight efforts to crack down on left-wing groups, specifically the anti-fascist movement known as antifa.
Trump hosted the event Wednesday as his administration has sought to unilaterally intervene in Chicago and Portland, Ore., despite resistance from state and local officials. The president blamed antifa for “carrying out a campaign of violence” against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.
“It should be clear to all Americans that we have a very serious left-wing terror threat in our country. Radicals associated with the domestic terror group antifa that you’ve heard a lot about lately, and I’ve heard a lot about them for 10 years,” Trump said.
The White House invited multiple conservative influencers who have echoed the administration’s rhetoric about left-wing groups causing chaos. Speakers were sharply critical of the media, accusing them of failing to adequately cover antifa activity.
Among the attendees was Nick Sortor, who was arrested outside an ICE facility in Portland last week and later released on his own recognizance. Other attendees included conservative journalist Andy Ngo, right-wing commentator Jack Posobiec, and Brandi Kruse, a former reporter who has focused on covering antifa in Portland.
“Hopefully in 3 1/2 years they will be a shell of their former selves,” Kruse said of antifa.
Republicans blamed antifa activists for protests and riots in major cities after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, and the term has been more broadly applied to left-wing protesters across the country who commit vandalism and acts of violence.
The White House has more recently blamed antifa for the protests in Portland near an ICE facility and for protests in Chicago against immigration enforcement. The Trump administration has attempted to deploy National Guard troops in both of those cities, but state and local officials have sued to block the deployments.
Trump late last month signed an order designating antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, following through on a pledge — in the wake of the killing of Charlie Kirk — to crack down on left-wing groups.
The order gives government agencies a broad mandate to investigate any operations conducted by antifa or for any operation where an antifa member “provided material support.”
Experts have said antifa is a decentralized ideology without a clear leadership structure, raising concerns about whether the order will be used to broadly crack down on left-wing organizations.
Source: The Hill