If Trump labels Antifa a foreign terrorist organization, here’s what he can do next

President Trump told members of a White House roundtable on Wednesday that he would designate Antifa a foreign terrorist organization.

The roundtable discussion, which included reporters who have covered Antifa street violence in Portland and Seattle for years, led to the president saying, “Let’s get it done.”

‘We’ve been treating Antifa like a local crime issue.’

While Trump designated the group a domestic terrorist organization in late September, no such formal designation officially exists in U.S. law. The president did direct all “relevant executive departments” to use their authorities to disrupt and investigate Antifa operations, but escalating the group to an FTO comes with a wider array of enforcement options.

First, providing any material support or resources to an FTO is a federal crime with a prison sentence of at least 20 years. Any bank, person, or organization that provides funding to an FTO is subject to a federal investigation, and any financial institution that becomes aware that it “has possession of, or control[s]” FTO funds and fails to intervene would face a $50,000 fine per violation.

The designation also opens up any noncitizen to possible deportation, if ties to Antifa are found. Aliens can also be determined to be inadmissible to the United States if they are found to be in connection with or in support of any FTO.

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A man is arrested after a shootout with anti-fascist activists on August 22, 2021, in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Mathieu Lewis-Rolland / AFP) (Photo by MATHIEU LEWIS-ROLLAND/AFP via Getty Images)

Executive Order 13224, signed by President George W. Bush in September 2001, blocked the ability of those connected to FTOs to make transactions related to property.

The FTO designation also unleashes the Treasury Department, giving the Office of Foreign Assets Control the ability to freeze assets and block use of assets of any organization found to be working with terrorists.

“All property and interests in property of designated individuals or entities that are in the United States or that come within the United States, or that come within the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked,” the executive order states.

Additionally, labeling Antifa an FTO allows for surveillance of any “foreign powers” and their “agents” at a lower threshold than the average U.S. citizen.

This is where the possible downside of designating Antifa as an FTO comes into play. Spying on foreign governments, foreign factions, or a “foreign-based political organization, not substantially composed of United States persons” could lead to all sorts of diplomatic issues, as well as civil rights problems.

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Journalist Nick Sortor (2nd R) holds an American flag as he speaks during a roundtable about Antifa in the White House on October 8, 2025. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

The risk of political weaponization in the future is also of grave concern, considering how federal entities have already been seemingly used against Trump.

First Amendment issues could also arise, and the designation raises questions as to whether expressing support for Antifa’s stated beliefs, past or present, online would prompt a federal investigation.

Blaze News national correspondent Julio Rosas, who attended the Antifa roundtable, says the FTO designation would be a great move to dismantle the support Antifa has overseas.

“This movement is not just a problem in our country. Antifa is very active in the U.K., France, and Germany, to name a few places,” Rosas told Blaze News. “Due to its decentralized nature, Antifa relies on support groups that work towards their same goals.”

Blaze News senior politics editor Christopher Bedford stated that freedom of speech and civil liberties must be protected but added, “We’ve been treating Antifa like a local crime issue when they are, in fact, enacting political terror.”

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