Donald Trump could use emerging new terror plans to go after his political enemies rather than terrorists, Democratic strategist David Axelrod has warned on CNN.
Trump has vowed to designate an anti-fascist collective as a “MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION” during a caps lock-heavy Truth Social meltdown.
Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance had promised recriminations for the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk earlier this month.
Now, Trump, 79, appears to have got the ball rolling, name-checking the decentralized political movement which he has railed against since his first term in office.
“I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday night, presumably from Windsor Castle, as his U.K. state visit enters its final day.
“I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices.”
CNN’s David Axelrod, the chief strategist to Barack Obama during his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, warns that the president should be “taken seriously,” especially since he could use the current political climate as a springboard to target dissenters.
“This post should not be dismissed, because what it means is he will define, just as they will define the public interest [regarding broadcasting licenses], they will define what is Antifa,” Axelrod said, speaking during Wednesday’s edition of Anderson Cooper 360.
“And they will go after everyone and everything that they put under that umbrella, even though it isn’t an organization. It is a, in many ways, mythology. But it gives them, you know, a pretext to go after their political enemies…”
As Axelrod touched on, Antifa doesn’t have a figurehead or any real organizational structure. Rather, it is comprised of disparate groups, loosely connected by ideology.
“This is gonna be a major effort to try and defund any opposition in this country by doing it under this rubric of ”Antifa” and the radical left. I think this is an inflection moment. So, it’s quite concerning,” he concluded.
Trump has made the move even though there is no publicly available evidence that the suspect in Kirk’s murder, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, had any ties to Antifa or related groups. In fact, in the immediate aftermath of Robinson’s arrest on Sept. 11, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said authorities believed the suspect acted alone.
Vance, speaking on the Charlie Kirk podcast after his death, said the government is “going to go after the NGO network that foments and facilitates and engages in violence.”
MAGA conspiracists believe Robinson may have been involved in a left-wing terrorist network. The FBI has since left the door open on the suggestion that Robinson may have worked with others.
A White House official, meanwhile, told Politico that tangible action is expected within “weeks.”
“What we strongly believe… is that when you have violent agitation, night after night after night with the same people, somebody is ultimately funding that,” they said.
“When the same people in Portland every night attack Federal officers, or riot—those resources come from somewhere… And we want to know who’s behind it, within the bounds of the law. It could be left-wing nonprofits. It could be foreign malign actors. It could be both.”
In response to Axelrod’s warning, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson denied that Trump’s terror plans are about stymying dissent.
“Left-wing organizations have fueled violent riots, organized attacks against law enforcement officers, coordinated illegal doxing campaigns, arranged drop points for weapons and riot materials, and more,” Jackson told the Daily Beast.
“The Trump administration will get to the bottom of this vast network inciting violence in American communities. It is disingenuous and false for Democrats to say administration actions are about political speech–they’re not. This effort will target those committing criminal acts and hold them accountable.”
