The Antifa Straw Men Distraction

How the Trump Administration is Building a Case Against the Left Using False Pretenses

Last week, President Trump hosted members of his cabinet and a handful of conservative influencers to warn that “Antifa” was destroying cities like Portland, Oregon — chaos, death, and destruction that only the U.S. military could supposedly stop. Let’s take a look at some of that chaos now:

What Trump and his MAGA crowd are banking on is that no one will actually pay attention to the work of journalists and activists who are showing this farce for what it is: an overexaggerated distraction at best and an excuse to use the military on US citizens at worst.

For the past several weeks, GOP Leaders and Speaker Mike Johnson have called the “No Kings” rallies planned by Indivisible for October 18 “Hate America rallies” that would be filled with “pro-Hamas, Antifa people.” I don’t know what kind of “Antifa” Johnson imagines, but it’s hard to picture suburban moms and retirees carrying signs for Medicare and democracy as masked anarchists.

Like so much of the right’s co-opted vocabulary, “Antifa” has become a blanket term for anyone demonstrating against Republican authoritarianism — from journalists documenting ICE “snatch and grabs” to activists defending neighbors from unlawful arrests.

It’s a pattern we’ve seen before:

• They claim “rampant crime” from undocumented immigrants, so they paint every migrant as MS-13.

• They talk about “lazy” people gaming Medicaid — so they slash healthcare for millions.

• They cherry-pick one accused individual who identifies as a trans woman to brand all trans women as sexual predators.

Each straw man is a setup for cruelty — a caricature built to justify punishment.

So who are these masked men who are seemingly terrorizing the very hearts and minds of the MAGA faithful? Why do their antics cause these Mar-a-Lago patrons to clutch their pearls with their very lives? And what are Trump and his crew actually up to with stunts like these roundtables?

What is Antifa?

Let’s start with the basics. You’ve heard it spouted many times out of the mouth of prominent Republicans and conservative talking heads: their favorite gang of masked boogeymen clad in black bloc that somehow orchestrated the mass chaos during the Black Lives Matter Rallies, the January 6th insurrection, and the assassination of Charlie Kirk: Antifa. But what is Antifa?

Despite what the geniuses in the GOP claim, Antifa isn’t an organization. It doesn’t have a leader, a headquarters, or a central command. Even Trump’s own former FBI Director Christopher Wray admitted: it’s not a group or organization — it’s a movement, an ideology.

Antifa is short for antifaschistisch — German for “anti-fascist” — and traces its lineage to Antifaschistische Aktion, a grassroots coalition founded in 1932 by members of the Communist Party of Germany to resist Hitler’s rise to power. That movement itself was inspired by the anti-Fascisti groups that emerged in Italy in the mid-1920s, formed by socialists, anarchists, and labor organizers in opposition to Mussolini’s Partito Nazionale Fascista.

So yes — the people who literally fought Nazis and Mussolini’s blackshirts are somehow the “bad guys” now.

In the U.S., antifa is a decentralized network of activists with anti-authoritarian, anti-fascist, and anti-racist beliefs. Many who organize against ICE, police brutality, or far-right extremism fall under its umbrella — often labeled “Antifa” by the right whether or not they identify that way.

Their tactics range from nonviolent direct action — protests, community organizing, mutual aid — to a small fringe that engages in digital activism, doxing, or property damage. The throughline: confronting fascism head-on. The modern American Antifa movement traces its roots to Anti-Racist Action in the 1980s, but it was Trump’s election in 2016 that gave it new prominence — especially after Charlottesville in 2017 and during the 2020 protests after George Floyd’s murder.

Contrary to right-wing punditry and GOP talking points, most anti-fascist groups plan for de-escalation, not violence. Their work looks a lot more like handing out water and legal hotlines than breaking windows. So what were Trump and his cabinet really talking about on October 8?

Round Table Meeting for Very Smart and Very Serious People

On Wednesday, October 8th, Donald Trump convened a “roundtable” of cabinet officials — including DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and FBI Director Kash Patel — alongside right-wing influ-I’m sorry, “independent journalists” like Andy Ngo, Nick Sortor, Katie Daviscourt, and others. The entire spectacle was theater — part disinformation session, part loyalty test.

“They are just as sophisticated as MS-13, as TDA [Tren de Aragua], as ISIS, as Hezbollah, as Hamas,” said Secretary Kristi Noem, about a decentralized movement that literally has no leadership structure. “They have an agenda to destroy us, just like the other terrorists we’ve dealt with for many, many years.”

Noem intentionally cited organizations formally designated as terrorist entities to fit the GOP’s ongoing narrative — echoing the president’s Executive Order aimed at labeling Antifa a “domestic terrorist organization,” despite the fact that no such legal mechanism exists in U.S. law.

She even claimed they had “the girlfriend of one of the founders of Antifa” in custody in Portland and were “trying to prosecute her.” Unless that woman is a 100-year-old Italian anti-fascist, Noem was either lying or making someone a patsy to score political points.

President Trump and his top lieutenants vowed to use “the full weight of the federal government” to combat Antifa with the same force used against drug cartels and foreign terrorists. At one point, Attorney General Pam Bondi declared

“Fighting crime is more than just getting the bad guy off the streets. It’s breaking down the organization brick by brick, just like we did with cartels. We’re going to take the same approach, President Trump, with Antifa — destroy the entire organization, from top to bottom. We’re going to take them apart.”

That statement was followed by Patel pledging that the FBI “will not rest until we find every single seed money, donor organization, and funding mechanism that we have,” adding that he was working with Treasury Secretary Bessent to track “those who fund these violent activities.”

If you’ve been paying attention, this fits neatly into the Trump administration’s new playbook: use “domestic terrorism” as a pretext to target political opponents financially, legally, and organizationally. The administration has already used airstrikes against alleged cartel boats off the Venezuelan coast — now they’re floating the same approach toward protesters and activists at home.

The October 8th meeting wasn’t about Antifa at all. It was about building a legal and rhetorical foundation to go after left-leaning donors and organizations under the guise of counter-terrorism. It was the latest attempt to turn fear into justification for repression — and the press conference that followed was the first draft of their propaganda campaign.

Grasping for those Straw Men

Trump came in hot to his second term with one goal in mind: dismantling Democratic and leftist-aligned organizations, primarily through financial warfare. His allies in Congress have already floated investigations into ActBlue and hinted at audits of liberal-leaning nonprofits. It’s part of a broader campaign to criminalize opposition under the guise of “national security.”

Following the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the alleged link to “the Left,” right-wing agitator Laura Loomer tweeted, “The best way President Trump can reinforce Charlie’s legacy is by cracking down on the Left with the full force of the government.”

So how does this connect to their obsession with blaming everything on “Antifa”?

It’s the same playbook we saw two decades ago: Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld needed a reason to invade Iraq, so they created one — “weapons of mass destruction.” Trump and his administration are now searching for their own WMD moment, something they can point to as justification for targeting left-wing organizations and donors powering the movement against them.

It’s easy to create a monster when the public doesn’t have access to the whole picture — especially when that confusion is intentional. Trump and his allies have built up “Antifa” into a shadowy, omnipresent super-threat by accusing it of everything from “burning down Seattle and Minneapolis” after George Floyd’s murder, to instigating the January 6th attack, to orchestrating assassination attempts on Trump himself. They’ve even tried to link the killers of Minnesota Speaker Melissa Hortman and Charlie Kirk to supposed “Antifa sympathies.”

The point isn’t truth — it’s fear. When the president of the United States and his cabinet label a non-existent organization as the root of domestic terrorism, it opens the door to extraordinary measures: surveillance, prosecution, and political purges.

Many observers have noted that the October 8th “roundtable” focused more on laying the groundwork for future policies than on the policies themselves. Trump and his team are already deploying the National Guard in cities like Los Angeles, D.C., Portland, and Chicago — claiming they’re protecting ICE agents from “Antifa terrorists,” even though the people confronting those agents have been mainly journalists, neighbors, and elected officials protecting their constituents from unlawful detentions.

When demonstrators object to those overreaches, the administration calls them “paid agitators.” Because in Trump’s worldview, no rational person could oppose authoritarianism — there must always be a villain, a puppet master, a George Soros behind the curtain.

And sure enough, Trump took to Truth Social in August to demand:, “George Soros, and his wonderful Radical Left son, should be charged with RICO because of their support of Violent Protests, and much more, all throughout the United States of America.”

It’s part of a deliberate strategy to conflate Democrats, leftist movements, and even fundamental protest rights with terrorism — a way to fold the entire opposition into one imagined enemy. It’s lazy, dangerous, and effective. Because if they can convince the public that “Antifa” and “the Left” are interchangeable, then suddenly every donation, every protest, and every critical voice becomes “aiding and abetting domestic terror.”

That’s not law enforcement. That’s fascism with paperwork.

The Path of the Money

Following the October roundtable, Reuters published a damning report exposing what many had already suspected: the Trump administration has developed an explicit plan to use the full force of the federal government against left-wing organizations — all under the guise of “countering domestic terrorism.”

According to the report, Trump’s senior advisor Stephen Miller is helping to lead the effort, which involves deploying America’s counterterrorism apparatus — the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, IRS, and Treasury Department — to investigate and potentially dismantle groups accused of funding or organizing “political violence.”

Two weeks after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), or the Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence Directive—if ya nasty. The order directs the National Joint Terrorism Task Force, created by the Patriot Act in 2002 after 9/11, to focus on “domestic terrorists whose ideologies include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity.”

While a White House official claimed the directive “remains focused on violence and illegal activity,” Trump’s own rhetoric tells a different story. When asked who these “domestic terrorists” were, he didn’t hesitate: George Soros and Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn and a prominent Democratic donor who famously bailed out NGP VAN last year.

In almost direct contradiction to the official line, the White House later named nine liberal groups and donors it claimed “helped finance or plan protests where violent incidents occurred.” The list included ActBlue, Indivisible, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), and the Open Society Foundations.

Administration insiders say the task force is exploring several tools to defund or shut down these groups, including:

• IRS investigations to strip nonprofits of their tax-exempt status,

• Criminal probes by the DOJ and FBI,

• Surveillance programs under DHS authority,

• And the use of RICO statutes and anti-terror laws to target donor networks and financial partners.”

The logic is chillingly simple: paint left-leaning donors as “terror financiers,” then use national security powers to neutralize them. It’s not just suppression — it’s financial warfare.

Presidential historian Timothy Naftali told Reuters, “Trump and Nixon share the same desire to punish political enemies and silence critics, but the difference is that today’s Congress and cabinet are enabling him to go further. That’s why this moment is far more dangerous for the rule of law than the 1970s ever were.”

Trump has made no effort to hide his vindictive streak. He’s repeatedly said that “disloyal” or “anti-American” entities will “face the consequences.” And now, through NSPM-7, he’s found a legal framework to carry out those threats — one that fuses political persecution with national security.

This is the authoritarian dream realized: punish your enemies, bankrupt your critics, and use the law itself as the weapon.

And when you follow the money, you find the real story — not about “Antifa” or “terrorism,” but about power, punishment, and control.

“If they are against the anti-fascists, what does that make them?”

President Trump and his allies will stop at nothing to take down anyone who dares oppose their inhumane acts or the authoritarian takeover of our government. His appetite for punishment is endless, and his methods increasingly lawless.

While Democrats and the Left find themselves navigating this treacherous ground, we must remember that the Constitution still grants us the right to speak, to organize, and to resist. We must educate ourselves and one another — legally and civically — to defend those rights like this lawyer who joined protestors demonstrating against law enforcement in Chicago, because this administration is betting that fear will keep us quiet.

We have already seen what comes next when that fear takes hold: peaceful protestors snatched off the streets, journalists assaulted by federal agents, and activists branded as terrorists for defending their neighbors. And now, Trump is preparing to use the full weight of the state — the FBI, IRS, DHS, and DOJ — to bankrupt and imprison his political enemies.

As horrifying as that is, it’s also clarifying. It reminds us that this fight has always been about more than politics. It’s about power — who wields it, and who suffers under it.

So, yes, it’s scary as hell. But we’ve been here before. We have inherited the legacy of the anti-fascists who stood against the brownshirts of the 1930s, the civil rights organizers who faced down segregationists, and the activists who risked everything to make America live up to its promises.

And while it feels dark right now, we are not powerless. We still have each other.

So find your team. Take care of each other. And keep fighting the good fight.

SIDE BAR

If you live in the Commonwealth of Virginia, get out and vote before November 4th for our Democratic Nominees for Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, and your House of Delegates District! Early voting has already begun and goes until November 1st. As I always say, if you want to stop receiving those mailers, phone calls, door knocks, or digital ads, vote early, and they’ll leave you alone.

This is the first real test of Democratic resilience during the 2nd Trump Administratio,n and as they say, as goes Virginia, so goes the nation!

To find your local early voting location, drop off sites, or your polling place and your candidates: go to iwillvote.com for more information!

By the Ballot is an opinion series published on Substack. All views expressed are solely those of the author and should not be interpreted as reporting or objective journalism or attributed to any other individual or organization. I am not a journalist or reporter, nor do I claim to be one. This publication represents personal commentary, analysis, and opinion only.