Why does Trump’s team portray Antifa as a terrorist threat?

US President Donald Trump is trying to convince Americans that the anti-fascist movement called Antifa poses as serious a threat to the country as terrorist organizations like Hezbollah.

Trump, top law enforcement officials and a handful of conservative journalists spent more than an hour at a White House event on Wednesday portraying Antifa as ultra-violent, deep-pocketed and bent on destroying American democracy.

It is seen as another example of the administration trying to build its case Sending troops into cities run by Democrats Like Chicago and Portland, Oregon, which Trump repeatedly portrays as lawless war zones.

During the televised roundtable, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem compared Antifa to Venezuelan crime gangs and armed groups in the Middle East.

“This Antifa network is just as sophisticated as MS-13, TDA (Tren de Aragua), ISIS, Hezbollah, Hamas, like all of them,” she said.

She added: “They are just as dangerous. They have an agenda to destroy us, just like other terrorists we have dealt with for many years.”

Noem made the comparison despite providing no evidence or intelligence to suggest that Antifa has the weapons, ability or even motivation to carry out attacks on the scale of any of those organizations.

Antifa It is a global, decentralized, leaderless movement Its mission is to protect society from neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

This is not at all what the Trump Roundtable described.

Trump said Antifa and other “left-wing extremists” were carrying out what he called a “campaign of violence” against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees.

“You should see what we have on these people. These are bad people. These are people who want to destroy our country,” Trump said.

FBI Director Kash Patel told the gathering that Antifa is “hurting ordinary citizens in every one of our communities” and vowed to “follow the money” to dismantle it.

“This is what it takes to bring down this network of organized criminal thugs, gang members and, yes, domestic terrorists because that’s what they are,” Patel said.

David Schanzer, expert in Counterterrorism Strategy, Counterterrorism and Homeland Security Act says he believes the real motivation behind the administration’s portrayal of antifa is to justify a broader crackdown on left-wing protests.

“They are trying to prove that there is some kind of threat to the average American citizen,” Schanzer said in an interview.

He wonders whether the authorities have any evidence that Antifa poses such a danger.

“Show me the money,” said Schanzer, a former adviser to Democrats on Capitol Hill and now a professor at Duke University.

“If there is a clear and present threat, and if they have evidence of this level of organization, they have an obligation to protect the American public and eliminate these organizations.”

Trump I signed an order In September, it declared Antifa a domestic terrorist organization, but legal analysts say the practical impact of that designation is unclear.

The United States government has not previously designated any domestic group as a terrorist organization, andPublic law enforcement officials already have the authority to investigate groups involved in violent crimes.

Attorney General Pam Bondi gave a hint about how the Justice Department might try to frame the argument for targeting anti-customs demonstrations, in light of U.S. constitutional protections of the right to peaceful protest.

“This is not activity, this is chaos,” Bondi said. “We cannot and will not allow masked terrorists to burn our buildings, attack our law enforcement, and terrorize our communities.”

White House officials gave much of the roundtable broadcast sessions to a series of conservative social media influencers who took turns telling stories about being on the receiving end of Antifa violence and urging the administration to take action.

“Mr. President, we need to do something about this because I’m afraid the next person who could be killed could be sitting at this table right now,” said Jack Posobiec, who has 3.2 million followers on X.

Participants paid a lot of attention to the city of Portland. Trump tried to send National Guard members there, but has so far done so I stopped in court.

“I was in Portland yesterday and had the opportunity to visit with the governor of Oregon, as well as the mayor,” Noem said. “They are completely covering up the terrorism hitting their streets“.

Noem visited an ICE facility in Portland that Trump described as “under siege” by Antifa. Images from Noem’s point of view From the view on the roof, a few protesters were visible holding signs, and one person wearing a chicken suit.