During a White House roundtable discussion, the homeland security secretary on Wednesday compared the loose network of antifascist activists to MS-13, Hamas, the Iran-backed group and ISIS, describing the decentralized protesters “just as dangerous” as officially recognized terror groups.
“They are just as sophisticated as MS-13, as the Tren de Aragua, as the Islamic State, as Hezbollah, as the Palestinian faction, each one of these, they are just as dangerous,” Noem said. “They have an agenda to destroy us, similar to other extremist groups we have confronted for decades.”
The roundtable included conservative online reporters such as Andy Ngo, Nick Sortor, Katie Daviscourt among others who cover antifa protests.
Some of the groups Noem cited – the Palestinian, Lebanese, and jihadist factions – are officially classified as terror groups that control territory, run armed branches, maintain command structures and have executed large-scale assaults such as explosions, abductions and assassinations.
Extremism experts have long described the anti-fascist movement, in comparison, as having no centralized leadership, formal membership or organizational structure, and it has often been portrayed by federal law enforcement as a decentralized movement of activists who engage in protest activity, some of which has included damage to belongings and street violence.
This meeting comes after an executive order signed last month designating antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization”.
Shortly prior to the declaration, a Proud Boys leader previously convicted and later pardoned for his role on January 6 posted on X: “Who’s ready to go ANTIFA hunting? Since I am acquainted with several individuals.”
