Originally published 2020-05-31.
On 31 May 2020, as protests over the killing of George Floyd spread across American cities, President Donald Trump announced on Twitter that the United States would designate Antifa a terrorist organisation. No designation followed during his first term, because US law offered no mechanism for labelling a domestic movement that way. In September 2025, in his second term, he signed an order declaring Antifa a domestic terrorist organisation, although the legal gap remains.
Here is what was said in 2020, what Antifa actually is, why legal experts said the pledge could not be carried out as announced, and what happened later.
What Trump announced
The announcement came less than a week after Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died under the knee of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on 25 May 2020. Peaceful demonstrations had been joined in several cities by rioting, arson and looting, and curfews were spreading. Trump and his allies blamed "the radical left" and Antifa for the violence.
The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2020
Attorney General William Barr backed the president the same day. In a Justice Department statement he said: The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly
. He said the FBI's joint terrorism task forces would be used to pursue violent agitators.
What Antifa is, and is not
"Antifa" is short for anti-fascist. In the United States it describes a highly decentralised collection of autonomous local groups and individuals rather than a single organisation. There is no national headquarters, no membership list and no chain of command. Groups share information through loose networks, and some keep their activities hidden because they fear infiltration by police or the far right.
The tactics of people who identify with the label vary widely. Many focus on researching and publicising the activities of white-supremacist groups or on counter-protests. A minority endorse confronting the far right physically, and that is where most of the controversy lies.
The name and the familiar two-flag logo come from Germany. Antifaschistische Aktion was a short-lived network formed in 1932, linked to the Communist Party, which opposed Hitler's Nazi party until the Nazis took power in 1933 and crushed the left-wing opposition. Modern groups in Europe and the US borrowed the name and the symbol decades later.
Even the FBI struggled with the idea of Antifa as a group. In 2020 FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress that the bureau saw Antifa as more of an ideology than an organization
, while stressing that violent individuals acting under that banner were a real concern.
Why the pledge had no legal mechanism
US terrorism designations exist for foreign groups. The State Department can list a foreign terrorist organisation under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which is how al-Qaeda, ISIS and Hezbollah came to be listed. Once a group is on the list, giving it "material support" becomes a federal crime.
No equivalent list exists for domestic movements. Federal law defines domestic terrorism as a type of conduct, but it does not let the government name a domestic organisation as terrorist. The White House itself acknowledged this in 2018, and Mary McCord, a former acting head of the Justice Department's national security division, has said there is simply no legal authority to designate a domestic group.
There is also a constitutional problem. The First Amendment protects freedom of speech and assembly, including for people who hold radical political views. Prosecuting someone for belonging to, or sympathising with, a loose movement, rather than for a specific crime, would face serious court challenges. People who commit violence during protests can already be charged under ordinary criminal laws, whatever their politics.
The political context in 2020
Critics saw the announcement as an attempt to shift attention from the cause of the protests, police violence against Black Americans, onto left-wing radicals. Local officials were not always sure who was behind the worst damage. In Minnesota, St Paul's mayor had to walk back a claim that everyone arrested came from out of state after jail records showed most were local, and the state's attorney general said nobody really knew yet who was responsible.
The timing also overlapped with the pandemic. By late May 2020 the United States had recorded more than 100,000 COVID-19 deaths, the highest total of any country at that point, and a presidential election was five months away. Opponents argued that a fight over Antifa served the campaign; supporters argued the president was standing up for order in cities that were burning. Both views were widely held, and the debate was as much about politics as about law.
What happened next
No formal designation was made in 2020. Investigations into protest violence went ahead under existing laws, and the label question faded after the election.
It returned in Trump's second term. In September 2025, about a week after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Trump announced he would designate Antifa a "major terrorist organization". On 22 September 2025 he signed an executive order declaring it a domestic terrorist organisation and instructing federal agencies to investigate, disrupt and dismantle groups and people linked to it. Legal commentators noted that the order did not create a new statutory power: the law still provides for designating foreign organisations only, so its practical effect depends on how agencies use their existing authority.
Common misconceptions
"Antifa is an organisation with leaders who can be arrested." It is a label adopted by many unconnected groups and individuals. That is exactly why designating it has been so difficult.
"Calling a group terrorist makes membership a crime." For foreign organisations, the designation triggers specific criminal and financial penalties. For domestic movements, no such legal machinery exists.
"Opposing fascism means supporting violence." Most people who call themselves anti-fascist do so through peaceful activism. The legal and political debate centres on the minority who use force, and those individuals can be prosecuted for what they do.
Sources: Donald J. Trump on Twitter, 31 May 2020; Wikipedia: Antifa (United States); NBC News: Trump says he will designate Antifa a terrorist organization.
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