When Donald Trump’s time in the White House is reduced to a small exhibit in the back corner of Ripley’s Believe or Not Museum, a single phrase will serve to define Trump’s every act: “I don't take responsibility at all.” Trump may have said that in response to a question about his handling of the COVID-19 crisis, but it’s an all-purpose description of his policy on every point. For every action … there must be a scapegoat. When it comes to how Trump justifies filling American streets with active-duty military and turning the nation into a brutal police state, that scapegoat is antifa.
On Sunday, after days of demonstrations in response to the murder of George Floyd and decades of racial violence by police, Trump declared he had the answer in saying that “The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.” The immediately obvious problem with that is that Trump has no authority to do that. Not only doesn’t he get to name terrorist organizations, the law only allows foreign organizations to be so designated. But it turns out there’s a third big reason Trump’s statement was outrageous. Just before Trump issued that tweet about designating antifa as a terrorist organization, the FBI told him there was “no intelligence” to indicate that antifa was involved, or even present, at incidents of violence.
As The Nation reports, the FBI’s Washington office prepared the briefing for Trump earlier on that same day. Using agents on the ground, online resources, informants, and every other tool the FBI could leverage, their finding was that antifa was not behind incidents of violence and looting. The situation report ran through a list of such incidents, including those such as throwing bricks or destruction of property, which had featured predominantly on the news. None of the results found any evidence of antifa involvement.
And that wasn’t the end of this information. According to The Nation, the FBI has been issuing reports daily on concerning events. None of these reports “contained any evidence of antifa violence.” But with this information on his desk, Trump made his Twitter announcement that the group—which doesn’t even exist as an actual organization—was to be designated as terrorists.
This wasn’t the first time Trump has made such a claim. Antifa has vied with Holocaust survivor George Soros for a spot on the far right’s list of illusory bad guys ever since the label was adopted by people who stood up to Trump-supporting fascists. In July 2019, Trump tweeted that he was thinking of naming antifa “a major organization of terror,” calling them “gutless radical left wack jobs” who went around hitting “non-fighters.” By which Trump apparently meant poor defenseless Nazis. A month later, Trump was at it again, repeating that “major consideration is being given to naming ANTIFA an “ORGANIZATION OF TERROR” and saying that where antifa goes “violence and chaos follow.”
Trump has tweeted about antifa six times in the last five days, including an additional claim that would be named a “terrorist organization.” And while the FBI report was on his desk, and mayors and governors on the ground were telling Trump exactly who was to blame, he instead went with a quote from Fox News to say “I don’t see any indication that there were any white supremest groups mixing in. This is an ANTIFA Organization.” And yes, he said “supremest.” The quote then went on to show how much this nonexistent organization has come to dominate the Trumpist mindset by declaring that antifa was also behind Occupy Wall Street. It also shows how far Trump will go to defend the very fine white supremacists who have been his vocal supporters.
As Wired has noted, antifa doesn’t just serve as an all-purpose left-wing boogeyman, it’s also convenient cover for Republicans. Why hasn’t the government acted against far-right militias who threaten citizens, invade state houses, and wave semi-automatic rifles in the face of officials? Why not go after genuine torch-waving Nazis? Well … look over there, it’s antifa!
Antifa isn’t a vast, shadowy organization. It’s certainly not a “major terrorist organization.” It’s not even an organization. But it is a scapegoat. A man who takes responsibility for nothing at all needs a whole herd of those.