WASHINGTON, D.C.—President Donald J Trump hosted a roundtable at the White House on October 8 to address what administration officials described as a growing epidemic of left-wing political violence attributed to Antifa and associated far-left extremists. Later in the meeting President Trump instructed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take the necessary steps to classify Antifa as Foreign Terror Organization.
The roundtable, attended by key cabinet members, journalists, and independent reporters, focused on Antifa’s alleged role in promoting Marxist, communist, and anarchist ideologies through targeted attacks on federal agents, law enforcement, and journalists. Participants shared their knowledge on the group’s activities across multiple U.S. cities, its opaque funding sources, and the Trump Administration’s strategies to counter it, including a recent executive order designating Antifa as a “militarist, anarchist enterprise” that advocates for overthrowing the U.S. government.
The roundtable came amid reports of escalating incidents, including assaults on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities and the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk by an alleged far-left extremist.
“It should be clear to all Americans that we have a very serious left-wing terror threat in our country,” President Trump opened. “Radicals associated with the domestic terror group, Antifa, that you’ve heard a lot about lately, and I’ve heard a lot about them for 10 years. And other far-left extremists have been carrying out a campaign of violence against ICE agents and other officials charged with enforcing federal law.”
Trump cited specific examples of Antifa violence and intimidation, such as anarchists in Chicago surveilling ICE facilities then posting diagrams and photos of agents online, accompanied by threats. He referenced a July incident in Texas where “approximately a dozen Antifa-aligned militants stormed the ICE facility in Texas and then lured officers out of the building before firing dozens of rounds at police,” that resulted in one officer being shot in the neck.
Trump also mentioned a sniper attack on an ICE facility in Dallas two weeks prior, that killed two detainees, where attackers left a note reading, “Hopefully this will give ICE agents some real terror.”
In Portland, Oregon, President Trump further noted that “Antifa thugs have repeatedly attacked our officers and laid siege to federal property in an attempt to violently stop the execution of federal law.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi reported a “more than a thousand percent increase in attacks against our ICE agents since January 20th,” attributing the impunity to Democratic leaders in cities like Chicago and Portland.
The discussion repeatedly tied Antifa’s actions to broader left-wing, Marxist, and communist ideologies aimed at undermining the U.S. government.
Funding sources emerged as a central theme at Wednesday’s roundtable, with participants alleging that Antifa’s operations are supported by wealthy donors and sophisticated networks.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem compared Antifa’s sophistication to international terrorist networks: “This network of Antifa is just as sophisticated as MS-13, as TDA, as ISIS, as Hezbollah, as Hamas… They are just as dangerous, they have an agenda to destroy us just like the other terrorists we’ve dealt with for many, many years.”
Secretary Noem praised Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for “getting to the bottom of these funding mechanisms and individuals who are perpetuating this violence on our American cities.”
A representative from the Government Accountability Institute, a conservative think tank, described Antifa as part of a “protest industrial complex” or “Riot Inc.,” funded by networks like the Open Society, Arabella, Tides, and Neville Roy Singham’s organizations. He claimed that over $100 million has flowed to radical groups, including at least $4 million to Antifa-affiliated entities, some from U.S. taxpayer funds.
“When you see the signs and they’re all made out of a beautiful paper, beautiful, nice, stiff, very expensive paper with beautiful wood handles all the same, all the same color, they come from very expensive printing machines,” Trump said implying an organized funding machine behind Antifa protests. “These are not people that write out their signs in a basement that believe in something. These are paid anarchists.”
Jonathan Choe, an investigative reporter for Turning Point USA and a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, alleged that Antifa is directly tied to the “homeless industrial complex.”
“Antifa is heavily embedded in the homeless and housing nonprofit sector,” Choe told President Trump providing a research report to administration officials. “In many cases, the homeless industrial complex is running cover for Antifa. Antifa is benefiting from American tax dollars, and they’re essentially being used as the muscle.”
Participants during the roundtable acknowledged the challenges of combating a decentralized group like Antifa, which operates autonomously and uses deception to evade accountability.
Andy Ngo, a Portland-based reporter noted, “How they organize is that they are decentralized, autonomous, and they operate on deception.” Despite this, Trump administration officials expressed confidence in their ability to dismantle Antifa through financial investigations and federal conspiracy charges.
Patel said his agency is taking a “whole-of-government approach” to “follow the money,” that targets donors and organizations to map out alleged financial criminal activities which, for decades has permeated throughout American society and institutions with the goal of overthrowing the Republic.
To counter efforts to usurp the federal government, President Trump referenced his executive order designating Antifa as a “militarist, anarchist enterprise” that calls for overthrowing the U.S. government, which Bondi said unlocks broader federal investigative powers.
Patel described ongoing operations, such as “Operation Summer Heat,” to dismantle networks “brick by brick, just like we did with cartels.”
AG Bondi detailed recent actions align with President Trump’s executive order such as a memo directing federal agencies like the DEA, FBI, U.S. Marshals, and ATF to protect ICE officers, and efforts to remove apps like ICEBlock from Apple and Google platforms.
Noem reported the arrests of dozens of Antifa-affiliated individuals, including the arrest in Portland of the girlfriend of one of the group’s founders, who she hopes to “get more and more information about the network” to “root them out and eliminate them from the existence of American society.”
The administration also criticized Democratic leaders for allegedly enabling Antifa’s violence.
Trump accused governors like Oregon’s and Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson of covering up Antifa’s activities or ignoring the threat.
Noem claimed that Portland police were “cheering on” rioters chanting threats against ICE agents, while Bondi opened a pattern-and-practice investigation into the Portland Police Bureau following Nick Sortor’s arrest for defending an American flag.
Andy Ngo, Brandi Kruse, Jonathan Choe, and Katie Daviscourt
Several independent journalists from the Pacific Northwest shared firsthand accounts of Antifa’s violence in Washington and Oregon to President Trump during the roundtable.
Brandi Kruse, a former mainstream reporter in Seattle, described covering Antifa for 15 years without official acknowledgment by her peers.
“The single most powerful thing you’ve done to deal with this scourge has been acknowledging that Antifa is a real thing,” Kruse told President Trump. “I genuinely believe there would be people at these tables who would be dead today and would’ve been killed in Portland had you not called them a terror organization.”
Kruse, who said she recovered from “Trump Derangement Syndrome” after witnessing media dishonesty, urged federal action.
“We want the federal government to take as many of these cases as possible, look at the interstate travel between Portland and Seattle when it comes to these people who are committing violent acts,” Kruse said.
Choe shared with the president that groups like Stop the Sweeps and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) work with Antifa to manufacture crises and protect their clandestine operations. He praised President Trump’s executive order on homelessness for disrupting these networks.
Katie Daviscourt, an investigative journalist with the Post Millennial, detailed her infiltration of Antifa cells to the president.
“I have been infiltrating Antifa cells in Seattle and Portland for the past decade,” Daviscourt shared.” I know their inner workings and Antifa uses extreme political violence to crush the civil rights of their political enemies and believes that violence is justified by any means necessary.”
Focusing on the Portland ICE facility occupation, she added, “This is nothing short other than a sustained attack on the United States, which is being supported by Democratic-elected officials… Federal agents been relentlessly assaulted for more than 100 consecutive days.”
Daviscourt, appearing with a black eye from an October 2, 2025, assault while reporting on protests outside the ICE facility in Portland, criticized Portland police for refusing to act.
A masked Antifa-affiliated protester allegedly struck her in the face with a flagpole resulting in a black eye and concussion, she said. Daviscourt then chased the suspect, held her for 35 minutes, and alerted Portland police, who refused to detain the individual and allowed her to escape into an alleged Antifa safe house.
“Residents living across the ICE facility have been held hostage by Antifa,” Daviscourt told President Trump. “They’re begging for federal intervention.”
Nick Sortor, a conservative independent reporter and social media influencer, described the plight of Portland residents near the ICE facility, including veterans with PTSD, who are “held hostage” by Antifa’s noise and violence. “They’re begging for federal intervention,” he said, noting that local governments have pretty much ignored resident’s pleas.
Ngo, a Portland-based reporter, recounted being ambushed in 2019, suffering a brain hemorrhage from a mob beating.
“I was bleeding out of my eyes and ears,” Ngo said, noting that mainstream media outlets suggested he deserved the attack or faked his injuries.
Author: Mario Lotmore
One Response
Wow! I never knew this. Thanks