Last week, the United States government designated the ironically titled Antifa movement a terrorist organisation.
This week, the US President is deploying the Army to Portland to help protect police from the far-left terror group.
For context, Portland has been the seed and centre of insurgent, left-wing political violence as far back as Barack Obama’s first term as president.
Even “mostly peaceful,” notoriously anti-Trump CNN have described Antifa and the organisation’s “black-bloc” tactics as a threat to persons, property, and police.
For example, Portland’s far-left political violence exploded on the back of Marxist Black Lives Matter riots in 2020.
Antifa affiliated Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front took over part of the city, creating an “autonomous zone.”
Known as the Red House Occupation, Antifa backed off only after former Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler caved. Wheeler broke a deal with the far-left group, and then effectively apologised for enforcing the law.
In a telling post on X (Twitter at the time), Antifa rallied members, calling them “comrades, and organised teams to dismantle barricades.”
Adding further reasons for the Trump administration’s concerns, from at least September 2nd 2025 onwards, Antifa has been the driver of political violence against federal immigration officers (ICE).
Quoting data from Homeland Security, The Daily Wire said in mid-July that “assaults on ICE agents have increased by a whopping 830% over the last year.”
MAGA administration’s Portland intervention indicates that President Trump is through waiting for the city’s “go along to get along” Democrats to act.
As Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Our ICE Facilities are under siege from attack by Antifa and other domestic terrorists. I am also authorising Full Force, if necessary.
“Make crime illegal again.”
Unsurprisingly, those Democrats and the far Left are crying foul, fascist, and unfair.
In the September 22 classification of Antifa as a terrorist organisation, the Trump White House stated,
“Antifa is a militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law.
“Antifa recruits, trains, and radicalises young Americans to engage in political violence and suppression of political activity,” the presidential order asserted.
“They then employ elaborate means and mechanisms to shield the identities of their operatives.”
This includes “concealing its funding sources and operations in an effort to frustrate law enforcement and recruit additional members.
“Organised attack on political speech through political violence is designed to achieve policy objectives by coercion and intimidation,” the order added.
This “is domestic terrorism.”
“Because of the aforementioned pattern of political violence designed to suppress lawful political activity and obstruct the rule of law, I hereby designate Antifa as a ‘domestic terrorist organisation.”
Trump’s Truth Social announcement was shorter and characteristically more direct.
“I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.”
It’s worth noting that Antifa is essentially a well-organised, mobile, violent anti-Trump entity, whose training and funding are shrouded in secrecy.
This is why Trump’s message also put those funding the organisation on notice.
“I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices,” the President concluded.
