Trump’s War on Antifa Is Destined to Backfire

Speaking of anti-fascists, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem assured us the government would “root them out and eliminate them,” while likening the movement to MS-13, ISIS, Hezbollah, and Hamas. Attorney General Pam Bondi, for her part, promised to “take them apart,” in her words, “just like we did with cartels” in the Caribbean. (At the aforementioned roundtable, Noem claimed to have “the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa” in custody, which would surely be news to that founder of antifa, if they existed.)

In the short run, National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, or NSPM-7, and the associated executive orders are sure to lead to the suppression of “anti-fascist,” “anti-American,” “anti-capitalist,” and other speech deemed “treasonous” by the administration, and to the arrest and prosecution of citizens and noncitizens alike who are seen as the “enemy within.”

In the longer run, however, it is likely that this war on anti-fascism will backfire, leading to a heightened profile for the movement and a deepening identification with its ideas and values among the broader populace. In the end, the White House’s strategy, even by its own logic, will prove to be pure folly.