‘It’s something I would do … if I have support from the people back here,” the president said, referring to administration officials standing behind him.
President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would support designating the antifa movement a terrorist organization in the wake of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk’s assassination last week.
In response to a question in a White House news conference, Trump was asked about the assassination and whether he would designate antifa as a domestic terrorist organization.
“It’s something I would do, yeah, if I have support from the people back here,” Trump said, referring to administration officials standing behind him, including Attorney General Pam Bondi.
REPORTER: Do you plan on designating Antifa a domestic terror organization?@POTUS: "It's something I would do, yeah… and also, I've been speaking to @AGPamBondi about bringing RICO against some of the people… that have been putting up millions and millions of dollars for… pic.twitter.com/eAuK3nXKVh
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 15, 2025
“I would do that 100 percent,” he said, adding that “antifa is terrible.”
“There are some other groups” who are “pretty radical groups, and they got away with murder,” Trump said. He did not provide any specific details about those organizations.
The president said he would also bring RICO, or Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, charges against “some of the people you have been reading about that have been putting up millions and millions of dollars for agitation.”
Antifa supporters generally hold extreme political views, including communist or anarchist beliefs. Supporters, who are usually organized through decentralized cells, often favor “direct action” rather than electoral politics or policy reform.
A commonly used tactic involves participants wearing black clothing and masks during protests to shield their identifying features. In many cases, antifa participants engage in violence during demonstrations, such as during the unrest that occurred throughout the summer of 2020 in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
The suspect in Kirk’s assassination, Tyler Robinson, is believed to have held leftist viewpoints, say FBI Director Kash Patel and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. He also engraved anti-fascist messages on bullets that were recovered by officials.
Officials have not said whether Robinson was in communication or was associated with any particular antifa groups. The FBI is currently scrutinizing online accounts that are alleged to have shown awareness of Kirk’s assassination before the incident unfolded, a source familiar with the FBI’s investigation confirmed to The Epoch Times on Monday.
