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Top White House official hints Antifa could soon be designated foreign terror group: ‘Stay tuned’

Antifa became a household topic when their movement produced violence across multiple U.S. cities, resulting in death, destruction and mayhem.

By:

Amanda Head

October 12, 2025

President Donald Trump may soon designate Antifa a foreign terrorist group, upgrading it from a domestic terrorist organization, which would provide a vast array of additional resources, funding and enforcement mechanisms.

“A whole panoply of tools, a whole toolbox opens up with the FTO (foreign terrorist organization) designation for terrorist organizations — tools that sit under [Treasury Secretary] Scott Bessent’s control at Treasury and under Marco [Rubio], dual-hatted as the Secretary of State,” Dr. Sebastian Gorka, the White House’s top counterterrorism official, told Just The News.

When asked whether Trump may soon designate Antifa a foreign terror group, Gorka expressed confidence that a decision was near.

“Antifa has been an international terrorist organization since its inception in Germany shortly after World War I,” he said. “So this isn’t just about something happening on the street in Portland. This is about an international network, an internationally funded network, of those trying to undermine Western civilization and our Constitution also. Let me just say, stay tuned.”

Antifa’s foreign roots, funding

Trump hinted at the designation change on Wednesday at the White House during a townhall discussion with journalists who have extensively covered Antifa’s riots and destruction. Responding to a member of the White House pool about whether he would upgrade Antifa’s designation to FTO, Trump answered, “Well, has that been done? Pretty close, right?” Trump emphasized the change, telling Secretary of State Marco Rubio, “We’ll take care of it.”

Speaking about the gravity of such a galvanic change in the handling of Antifa by Trump, Gorka said, “It’s an incredible explosion of statecraft tools that is provided with the FTO designation. So whether it’s al Qaeda or Antifa, it provides us a lot of additional tools, and that’s why the president’s decision is so very, very important.

Gorka, who serves as Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council, said the government has the power “not just to sanction individual organizations, to go after them, but it’s also individuals or those who assist the terrorists, to give them succor, aid, training, financing.”

The FTO designation effectively serves as a ban on the organization, making it unlawful for anyone in the United States to knowingly supply material support or resources to the designated entity.

Antifa has operated on U.S. soil for at least a half-century, with a resurgence of activity occurring in the 2010s. As an organized far-left activist movement which claims to oppose fascism, the group has been connected to violent incidents during protests, often involving violence through property destruction, attacks on law enforcement, and clashes with right-wing groups, according to studies by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Anti-Defamation League.

Antifa merely an “idea,” Democrat insists

Aligning with left-wing ideology, many Democrats have referred to Antifa as a nebulous, spontaneous movement, with former President Joe Biden notoriously referring to it as “an idea, not an organization.” However, according to the Government Accountability Institute’s Director of Research Seamus Bruner, “Antifa isn’t a spontaneous movement, it’s a coordinated network with funding that traces back to powerful interests at home and abroad.” Bruner, who is the bestselling author of Controligarchs, discusses his organization’s study into Antifa and warned, “Our research shows the same dark-money and nonprofit structures bankrolling US protest movements are also enabling Antifa-aligned groups overseas. A foreign terror designation could finally expose these global funding pipelines.”

Biden isn’t the only Democrat who has downplayed Antifa’s existence and violent impact domestically. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler referred to Antifa as a “myth” that “does not exist” in 2020, effectively dismissing reports of its involvement in violent protests and providing political cover for its actions.

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has been accused of enabling Antifa through lax enforcement and coordinated responses that prolonged unrest in Portland, allowing the group to act as informal shock troops against conservative events without significant repercussions.

Vice President Kamala Harris indirectly supported Antifa-linked Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 by promoting a bail fund for those arrested during Black Lives Matter demonstrations, where Antifa militants were often involved in the violence.

In 2017, violent confrontations erupted in Charlottesville, Virginia, during the “Unite the Right” rally, where Antifa counter-demonstrators fought with conservative supporters of the cause, resulting in injuries and one death caused by a vehicle attack. During a boiling point of political tensions in Portland, Oregon, the Democrat-led city became the focal point of unrest from 2017 to 2020, with Antifa-linked Black Lives Matter protests leading to over 100 nights of chaos, including fires, vandalism of federal property, and assaults on police with rocks and lasers.

In Seattle’s 2020 “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,” also known as CHAZ or CHOP (Capitol Hill Organized Protest), Antifa-affiliated groups were implicated in armed patrols and violent incidents, contributing to two still-unsolved deaths, based on local law enforcement accounts.

From 2021 to 2023, violence decreased but continued in events like the Atlanta “Cop City” protests, where Antifa-linked individuals used Molotov cocktails and sabotage against construction sites, injuring officers and prompting federal charges. In 2024 and 2025, Antifa’s activities during election-related rallies in cities like Minneapolis and Berkeley involved minor disruptions, with no major casualties but ongoing scrutiny from the FBI and law enforcement.