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Concerns over crackdown on anti-fascists and Black Lives Matter movements as Trump loyalists take control

There are growing concerns that outspoken MAGA disciple and newly appointed FBI Director Kash Patel will take action based on past comments about anti-fascists and the crackdown on Black Lives Matter protesters.

For years, Donald Trump has called for “Antifa” — or more broadly, all anti-fascist activists — to be designated an official domestic terrorist organization. While this has not become official policy, Trump’s top national security leaders at the FBI, CIA, and Pentagon are all firmly committed to implementing his political agenda.

Even from within the FBI, an anonymous agent has publicly warned that the domestic counterterrorism strategy could shift from investigating ultra-violent far-right groups to supporting left-wing protest movements.

While the bureau has never been a friend of anti-fascist or black protest movements in the past, today’s activists have noticed the electoral changes and Trump’s promise of retaliation against what he calls the “enemy within” at many of his rallies.

“We see opposition to fascism as an increasingly dangerous endeavor under Trump’s fascist regime,” said Walter Toole, a member of the Antifa International Social Media Collective. “Many of us are becoming more cautious than ever.”

Toole believes Trump will once again try to label anti-fascist activists as terrorists, as he has with his Mexican cartels (another central Trump talking point), because “anyone who tries to outlaw opposition to fascism is fascist.”

“Antifa is rioting again,” Patel said. “Two liberal lawyers, lawyers in white shoes, set fire to a New York City police car and set it on fire with Molotov cocktails.”

Patel falsely claimed that the judge then “basically gave them probation.” Both lawyers were fired and disciplined.

He also claimed that the only solution to the system was “a massive overhaul” that required executive branch control through a partisan attorney general. Then, according to the current FBI director, “you have to dismantle the FBI” and shut down its nerve center in Washington, D.C.

So far, Patel’s dream has come true: Trump is in the White House, and Pam Bondi is his attorney general, and Patel has already moved 1,500 agents out of the FBI headquarters in the J. Edgar Hoover Building in D.C. Targeting “Antifa” could be one of its next moves.

But the FBI is ignoring the domestic terrorism threat posed by the far right, in favor of focusing on anti-fascist or BLM protesters years ago, risking emboldening neo-Nazi groups that are already regrouping under a friendly law enforcement environment.

“There is no major domestic terrorism threat or public safety concern in terms of the violence directed at people in the anti-fascist movement,” said Heidi Beirich, who cited well-known statistics that the far right is an overwhelming domestic terrorism threat to the United States. “The FBI would simply follow the foolish path of allowing violent actors to metastasize while simultaneously finding a hypocrite who doesn’t exist.”

“And I would also add that there is no ‘antifa’ organization — there are some nonsensical groups all over the country that don’t kill people based on their racist ideology, like white supremacists.”

Beirich believes that Patel will likely send the FBI to investigate the political and personal allegations that the president listed during his presidential campaign.

“I assume he will use the FBI not to protect us, but to carry out his and Trump’s vendetta,” he said.

Toward the end of his first presidency, Trump became embroiled in protests over the name-checking of Antifa and the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. He infamously held a Bible in the air as armed police surrounded BLM protesters in D.C.

Just months after that incident, US marshals controversially shot and killed an anti-fascist activist in Washington. At the same time, 750 federal officers were sent to Portland on a law enforcement mission that Trump personally called for.

A branch of anti-fascist activists in Atlanta, who are among the most effective in the country in exposing influential neo-Nazis and far-right extremists, told the Guardian that they were prepared and proactive rather than giving in to fear.

“This is a serious situation, and we do not want to minimize it,” the Atlanta anti-fascists said in an email, noting that the Biden administration has also used its judiciary to crack down on grassroots protesters. “However, the risks are always serious for us.”

But the Atlanta anti-fascists say that stopping their activism will never be an option.

“We will do what we always do: monitor, expose and deter overt fascists,” they said, though they acknowledged that far-right extremists are likely to receive more state support than in years to come. “The threat of anti-fascist repression may require taking practical steps, such as adopting stronger data protection measures.”

Counterterrorism experts have also spoken out about the dangers of diverting police resources to chasing leftists who, according to the data, do not pose a serious threat to public or national security.

“If you ask 10 nonpartisan counterterrorism analysts where the most significant domestic terrorism threat comes from, about 10 will say the far-right,” said Colin Clark, research director at the Soufan Group, who considers himself one of those nonpolitical watchdogs. “This is not an opinion but based on facts and empirical evidence.”

👉Watch the video Eoyang: Kash Patel is somebody who has been politicizing intelligence

Clark clarified that there is a small and growing threat from organizations described as “far-left.”

“But when it comes to allocating resources to counterterrorism,” Clark said, “going after antifa instead of homegrown violent extremists motivated by jihadism or white supremacy is pointless.”