Trump’s “Antifa Terrorists” and Jimmy Kimmel’s Silencing

Authoritarian theater with real consequences.

Donald Trump loves a show of force. On Wednesday night, he pounded out a caps-lock declaration on Truth Social:

“I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.”

It sounds decisive. It’s meant to scare. But here’s the problem: there is no such thing as designating a U.S. movement as a terrorist organization. I know. I used to sit in the meetings where we weighed terrorist designations against groups like al-Shabaab or Lashkar-e-Tayyiba. There’s a clear legal process for foreign organizations. Nothing equivalent exists for domestic ones.

This isn’t counterterrorism. It’s campaign politics in camouflage.

What He’s Really Doing

Trump tried this stunt in 2020, when the nation was reeling from the George Floyd protests and the unrest that summer. I was inside the government then, working on the aftermath of the Portland riots and on the federal response to Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the country. I remember the pressure to brand every protest as “antifa” and to shift the blame away from the documented rise of violent far-right groups. The idea fizzled because the law doesn’t support it and neither did the intelligence. But the intent was clear: weaponize the tools of counterterrorism against Americans exercising their rights.

Trump 2.0 is different: he’s got fewer restraints, more loyalists, and a team, from JD Vance to Stephen Miller to Pam Bondi, ready to bend the system for him. Already, Vance has promised to “go after the NGO network,” while hosting Charlie Kirk’s podcast this week. The State Department is revoking visas for non-citizens who post the wrong thing online, and Bondi says the Department of Justice will prosecute “hate speech.” I strongly encourage you to read THIS article by The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) for a solid explanation of why what she said about hate speech is wrong.

Labeling political opponents as “terrorists” is the oldest trick in the authoritarian book. Russia’s Putin does it to dissidents. Turkey’s Erdogan jails journalists under terrorism charges. Orbán in Hungary even created a so-called “Sovereignty Protection Office” to investigate journalists, NGOs, and opposition politicians for alleged “foreign influence.” In reality, it’s a government tool to intimidate critics and suppress free expression. Trump is now applying the same tactic here: branding political opponents as “terrorists” to delegitimize protest.

Once you normalize this rhetoric, the slope is steep. If he can call “antifa” a terrorist group, an amorphous label for loosely organized left-leaning activists, what’s to stop him from declaring journalists, protesters, or political critics as next on the list?

The timing is no accident. Trump’s announcement comes days after the killing of Charlie Kirk, when the country should be focused on lowering the temperature and confronting the very real rise in political violence. Instead, he’s distracting, scapegoating, and inventing enemies out of shadows. Investigators haven’t even linked the suspect to antifa, or to any group at all.

But Trump needs a villain. And he needs to rally his base around the idea that only the “radical left” is violent, even as far-right militias, white supremacists, and January 6th rioters have carried out the deadliest political violence of our time. Notice who isn’t labeled a terrorist. The Proud Boys. The Oath Keepers. The militias that stormed the Capitol. The very groups DHS and the FBI have assessed for years as the top domestic terror threat. Trump won’t touch them. They’re his people. He’s pardoned many of them.

The Legal Mirage, The Real Danger

Yes, there’s no statute to make “antifa” a terrorist organization. But don’t be lulled. Trump is signaling that he will twist other tools–RICO charges, expanded surveillance, visa bans, workplace punishments—to target anyone he can associate with “the left.” Once federal agencies are told to treat domestic dissent as terrorism, the chilling effect is real.

It’s not that he doesn’t know. Trump has been briefed on this in the past. He knows what antifa is, and what it isn’t. This isn’t ignorance. It’s deliberate.

And it’s not hypothetical, we’re already seeing repeatedly how dissent is being punished. This week, Jimmy Kimmel was suspended indefinitely after mocking Trump’s response to Charlie Kirk’s killing, a move celebrated by the President himself and pushed by his FCC chair. That’s not private ‘cancel culture,’ that’s government pressure silencing a critic.

And this isn’t just about Trump. If you normalize the idea that presidents can slap the “terrorist” label on loosely defined domestic movements, the precedent will outlive him. Imagine a future Democratic administration deciding to target conservative or far right groups the same way. Some might cheer that outcome. But here’s the danger: it corrodes the line between political dissent and actual terrorism, muddying the waters of what keeps Americans truly safe. Counterterrorism should be about preventing violence, not advancing propaganda. Once you blur that line, you weaken national security for everyone.

As the Southern Poverty Law Center warned years ago, this kind of designation, even if it’s legally hollow, grants law enforcement broad powers to surveil, investigate, and punish. And this time, Trump’s people mean to follow through. Americans' civil liberties could be at risk.

I’ve Seen the Real Threats

During my time in government, I saw the threat assessments up close. The number one danger to Americans was not antifa. It was violent white supremacists, militias, and anti-government extremists. The groups who have burned Black churches, murdered parishioners, and plotted against governors.

But Trump isn’t interested in reality. He’s interested in enemies.

So take him at his word. Because once a president starts branding his critics as terrorists, the rest of democracy is already on notice.

We’ve already seen the First Amendment under assault, with Jimmy Kimmel pulled off the air after pressure from Trump’s FCC. That isn’t just cancel culture; it’s state-enforced censorship. Comedy, commentary, and criticism are all protected speech. If the government can silence a late-night host, it can silence anyone.

Free speech is not a partisan privilege. It is the bedrock of American democracy. And it is in danger.

So what can we do?

• Defend free speech in practice. Share and amplify the voices being silenced.

• Back independent media & watchdogs. Support outlets and organizations that expose abuses of power.

• Contact your representatives. Remind your elected officials that weaponizing “terrorist” labels against Americans is unacceptable. Push for congressional oversight when the executive overreaches.

• Know your rights. The First Amendment protects protest, assembly, and speech. The more citizens exercise those rights, the harder they are to erode.

• Resist normalization. Call out propaganda when you see it. Don’t shrug when the government tries to criminalize protest or satire. Silence and cynicism are what authoritarians count on.

• Support civil society. NGOs, legal defense funds, and advocacy groups are the first to be targeted under these tactics. Maintaining their strength is part of democratic resilience.

The answer isn’t despair, it’s action. Defend those being silenced. Support independent media. Know your rights and use them. Authoritarianism thrives on apathy. Democracy survives when we refuse to be quiet.

More soon,

Olivia