Senator urges Rubio to move forward designating Antifa a foreign terror organization

By Sarah Roderick-Fitch
The Center Square

President Donald Trump expressed a desire to designate Antifa a foreign terror organization; now, a U.S. senator is urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio to make it happen.

In September, the president officially designated Antifa a domestic terror organization after The Center Square posed the question to Trump in the Oval Office days after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated.

The president hosted an Antifa roundtable at the White House on Wednesday, where he invited a dozen journalists who the leftist terror group has verbally and physically attacked.

The Center Square asked the president if he would take the designation a step further and move to designate the group a foreign terror organization. Trump responded, “Let’s get it done.”

Rubio, who had briefly joined the room, was asked by the president to “take care of it.”

In an effort to back up Trump’s wishes, U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., sent a letter to Rubio urging him to designate the group an FTO.

Schmitt described the group as being “part of a global system of violent far-left extremists.”

The senator underscored the group’s “coordinated, organized political violence,” while targeting its funding sources, which the administration says it is currently investigating.

“Antifa is active across – and beyond – the West. Antifa cells in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and across Europe often work in direct coordination with one another – linked by a global network, they share funds, coordinate tactics, and mobilize across borders,” the senator wrote.

Schmitt cited a 2023 riot in Atlanta as part of the “Stop Cop City,” where rioters targeted a police training facility. He said authorities discovered the riots were “part of an ‘international group’ – traveling from France, Canada, and other foreign nations to attack police,” including by using Molotov cocktails.

The senator also cited the group’s involvement in a 2017 Hamburg G20 summit uprising that he claims injured nearly 500 police officers.

“Across the globe, Antifa operations are sustained by a web of international organizations, networks, and NGO’s. Groups like the ‘International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund’ brag about bankrolling 800+ Antifa activists across 26 countries,” Schmitt wrote. “European law enforcement agencies have reached the same conclusion. Europol’s 2023 terrorism report notes that left-wing extremists ‘see themselves as part of an international movement,’ coordinating through shared safe houses, operations bases, and cross-border networks.”

The terror group has been most active in cities such as Portland and Seattle; however, the group was founded in Europe.