Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he designates the “Antifa” anarchist movement as a terrorist organization, even though it is a general and vague term referring to far-left groups claiming to be “inspired by anti-fascism”, one week after the assassination of the conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.

The American president stated this via Truth Social, typing the descriptors in capital letters, as he usually does.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced a few days ago that he has tasked 56 different FBI anti-terrorism units with locating, arresting, and pressing charges against protesters of the anti-fascist movement.

Antifascist Action, or anti-fascism, or Antifa, is a heterogeneous far-left political movement consisting of autonomous groups, mainly in the U.S. and EU countries, whose common and primary characteristic is opposition to what they label “fascist ideology” or “fascist groups” through direct forms of mostly violent actions. The way they choose, however, who they label as “fascist”, “neo-nazi” etc. is dubious as they often include in that category any voice that is practically on the right of the center on the political spectrum.

The movement remained relatively inactive in the early 2000s in the US, a situation that changed with Donald Trump’s rise to power.

The Antifa movement made its presence particularly noticeable during the events in Charlottesville in 2017, with counter-protests against right-wingers who demanded that the statue of General Robert E. Lee should not be removed from the city’s central park. During the demonstrations, a far-right man drove his car into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman, Heather Heyer. Afterwards, anti-fascists had a strong presence in the “Black Lives Matter” movement demonstrations, which intensified following the killings of Black citizens by white police officers, and continue to participate in protests under similar circumstances, including after the death of George Floyd.

The organization of their mobilizations is facilitated by a wide network on social media. Their funding, however, is suspicious and a matter of debate as billionaires with conflicting interests with the US government, such as George Soros, have openly supported groups that participate in the Antifa movement.