THE URGE TO violently—and peacefully—protest has gripped the United States, and President Trump thinks something called antifa is to blame. On Sunday, after days of demonstrations against racism and police brutality sparked by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Trump cast blame in a tweet: "The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.” The statement drew immediate criticism from activists and Constitutional law experts alike. The word antifa is a contraction of anti-fascist, a broad ideology that few people left of Mussolini actually oppose. The antifa that Trump is talking about is a vague movement within that ideology, a loosely affiliated cohort of far-left activists best known for turning up to white nationalist demonstrations in all black, “punching Nazis,” and sometimes destroying property and creating mayhem. It’s not the first time Trump and other right-wing figures, like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, have singled out antifa for criticism and claims of terrorism. The idea of antifa has become a sort of far-left bogeyman, a masked figure lighting trash cans on fire. Somebody to point to when progressives ask why the government hasn’t taken stronger action against white nationalists toting AR-15s and tiki torches. Read more https://www.wired.com/story/trump-antifa/
