The Bulwark: Going to the 'No Kings' Rally? Trump Says You're a Terrorist.
The reality TV president is trying to lay a predicate to build support for mass arrests of anti-Trump protesters, while building a permission structure for MAGA types to commit violence against them.
By Jonathan V. Last /The Bulwark
Whither Antifa. I want to draw your attention to three Antifa-related actions Republicans have taken over the last four weeks. Because they aren’t really about “Antifa.”
They’re about you.
First, President Trump signed an executive order designating Antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization.”
The text of the EO itself is ridiculous. There is no Antifa “organization.” There are loose associations of people who consider themselves to be part of an anti-fascist movement. But “Antifa” is not like the Oath Keepers. There is no leader, no membership roster, no organization.
Just read the EO:
Antifa is a militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law.
“Explicitly”? Where’s the mission statement? Where’s Antifa Code of Conduct? Who’s the chairman? Who’s the treasurer? How much are membership dues?
If you wanted to seriously talk about Antifa as a terrorist threat, you’d compare it to white nationalism or Islamist terrorism. Those are diffuse movements that lack unifying organizations—like Antifa. (Important caveat footnoted.1)
But the administration realizes that there is no “enterprise” that “explicitly” does anything. The president is merely attempting to link the ideas of Antifa and terrorism in the minds of the public.
Why would he do that?
The Antifa roundtable. Next, Trump held an “Antifa roundtable” at the White House. The most notable aspect of this meeting was that Trump shifted his definition of Antifa from being an organized criminal enterprise to a more nebulous ideological concept. Here are the relevant passages:
“It should be clear to all Americans that we have a very serious left-wing terror threat in our country, radicals associated with the domestic terror group Antifa. . . .
“In July, approximately a dozen Antifa-aligned militants stormed the ICE facility in Texas. . . .
“The epidemic of left-wing violence and Antifa-inspired terror has been escalating for nearly a decade.”
The bold is mine because I want you to note the sleight of hand. We’ve gone from “Antifa is an enterprise” to “the people who did these bad things were somehow associated with, or philosophically aligned with, or inspired by Antifa.”
Those are very different things.
Why the prestidigitation? Because ultimately what the Trump administration is trying to do is label you a terrorist. You can tell because late last week the talking points went out among Republicans for the October 18 No Kings Protests and what did they say?
Speaker Mike Johnson on the planned October 18 protest: It will be a “hate America rally” that will draw “the pro-Hamas wing” and “the Antifa people.”
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer: “This is about one thing and one thing alone—to score political points with the terrorist wing of their party, which is set to hold a hate America rally in D.C. next week.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy: “The No Kings protest, Maria, really frustrating. This is part of Antifa, paid protesters. It begs the question who’s funding it.”
This is all bullshit, obviously. I say “obviously” because if any of it were true, Republicans would be showing you evidence.
Who is being paid? When were they paid? How much? How was the payment transacted? Is there videotape of a No Kings protester accepting a Cava bag full of cash from someone wearing an Antifa badge on his black bodysuit?
Another way you can tell that it’s bullshit is because if Antifa really were a domestic terrorist organization and it really was behind the No Kings event, then the government would not allow the events to take place.
Pretend that an actual terrorist organization—let’s say ISIS—announced that it was going to hold a series of rallies across the country on October 18. Would they have permits? Would American law enforcement allow them to gather? Or would the FBI scramble the entire bureau in an attempt to arrest every ISIS member who showed up, anywhere?
Here is the question reporters should be asking Republicans:
If Antifa is a domestic terrorist organization and the No Kings protests are “Antifa,” shouldn’t you arrest everyone who shows up to them?
Two-track approach. So what is Trump doing? It’s a two-track approach.
The first is fake-it-until-you-make-it. The administration does not believe that it has enough public support to do mass arrests of dissenters. So it is trying to build up to that point. Making the Antifa-dissent link now is predicate-laying.
The second is a call to violence. Look: The president of the United States says that Antifa is a domestic terrorist organization. High-ranking elected Republicans and a member of his own cabinet say that the people who will gather in protests across the country this Saturday are Antifa.
Ergo, these protestors must be domestic terrorists.
Trump and Republicans are putting a target on dissenters in the hopes that either (a) stochastic violence will be visited upon them, or at least (b) the threat of stochastic violence will convince some of them to stay home.
That’s what this “Antifa” bullshit is all about. It’s about coming for you and anyone who would stand up to the authoritarians.
1-I do not accept the administration’s framing that “Antifa” is a terrorist organization and I would not compare it with either white nationalism or Islamism.
I am merely using those two movements as reference points for how the government would talk about Antifa if it were acting in even quasi-good faith.
It is not clear to me that “Antifa” is any more coherent as a movement than “progressivism,” or “conservatism,” or “paganism.” I don’t even think we should capitalize “Antifa” because that makes it seem more canonical than it is.
Jonathan V. Last is the Editor of The Bulwark and writes The Triad newsletter. Subscribe here.
Image: Moriba Jah on Medium.