Donald Trump has officially designated Antifa as terrorists after promising a crackdown on the “radical left” following Charlie Kirk’s death.
Mr Trump signed an executive order late on Monday night confirming the move after days of speculation.
The White House confirmed the activist network was a “domestic terrorist organisation” and a “militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government”.
Elsewhere in the executive order itself, Antifa is blamed for “recruiting, training, and radicalising young Americans to engage in violence”.
Antifa is blamed for ‘recruiting, training, and radicalising young Americans to engage in violence’
|
GETTY
“All relevant executive departments and agencies shall utilise all applicable authorities to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all illegal operations” run by the group, it adds.
Just days ago, the President confirmed: “The problem is on the left. It’s not on the right, like some people like to say.
“When you look at the agitators – you look at the scum that speaks so badly of our country, the American flag burnings all over the place – that’s the left, not the right.”
While Republican strategist Chet Love told GB News that America was facing an epidemic of “liberals in the States who are saying the American flag is a fascist symbol”.
“The same narrative [is] being pushed by these same far-left agitators across the pond in the UK,” he added.
FAR-LEFT VIOLENCE – READ MORE:
Donald Trump has officially designated Antifa as terrorists
|
REUTERS
Asked soon after Mr Kirk’s killing whether he would proscribe Antifa, the President said: “I would do that, 100 per cent.”
He added: “Antifa is terrible. We have some pretty radical groups, and they got away with murder.
“These aren’t protests. These are crimes what they’re doing.”
The White House also drew attention to a years-long list of Antifa terror incidents and “radical left violence” between 2017 and today.
In that list, the US explicitly states that Charlie Kirk “was assassinated by a radical left terrorist”.
The White House explicitly stated that Charlie Kirk ‘was assassinated by a radical left terrorist’
|
REUTERSIt also includes two attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents in the US this July.
In one, members of an Antifa cell ambushed officers at an Ice facility in Texas, luring them out of the building and shooting one in the neck.
In the same month, “deranged” rioters assaulted Ice workers in Oregon – kicking, punching and targeting them with an “incendiary device”.
“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 organisations, and their allies in the media,” the White House said.
