Speaking during an extremely important series of remarks on Thursday, September 25, President Donald Trump noted that not only is the administration going after various alleged left-wing terror groups like Antifa, which he has labeled a terror group, but it is going after those who have allegedly funded, whether directly or indirectly, those groups, pointing to billionaire leftist financier George Soros as an example.
As background, in the wake of the cold-blooded assassination of his friend and ally Charlie Kirk in Utah at the hands of a radical leftist who appears to have been part of a conspiracy involving other leftist radicals, and as black-clad, mask-wearing radicals attack ICE agents around the country, President Trump announced that he would be declaring Antifa a terror organization.
Doing so, he said, “I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
It was then, on Thursday the 25th, that he followed up on that, hosting an event in the Oval Office in which he signed a presidential memorandum directing his entire administration work to crack down on the sort of “domestic terrorism” and “organized political violence” carried out by “bad people” and “anarchists” on the left. He also said, as part of that crackdown, that the funders of such groups would be targeted.
The memorandum he signs directs a slew of agencies and departments, including the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security. and the Department of Treasury, to create a “strategy to investigate, prosecute, and disrupt entities and individuals engaged in acts of political violence and intimidation designed to suppress lawful political activity or obstruct the rule of law.”
Continuing, the memo highlights some of Antifa’s main tactics and describes them as “domestic terrorist acts,” saying that the whole of government effort will handle leftist terrorism of the sort that includes “organized doxing campaigns, swatting, rioting, looting, trespass, assault, destruction of property, threats of violence, and civil disorder.”
Additionally, the memo provides, “This guidance shall also include an identification of any behaviors, fact patterns, recurrent motivations, or other indicia common to organizations and entities that coordinate these acts in order to direct efforts to identify and prevent potential violent activity.”
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While that was big enough news, President Trump also said that those who fund such groups and have thus aided and abetted domestic terrorism will be shut down, saying, “We’re looking at the funders of a lot of these groups.” He continued, “We hear the same names, but they’re bad. And we’re going to find out. And if they are funding these things, they’re going to have some problems because they’re agitators and they’re anarchists.”
And, giving an example of someone who will be gone after, President Trump said, “Well, Soros is a name, certainly, that I keep hearing. I don’t know, Soros is a name that I hear. I hear a lot of different names. I hear names of some pretty rich people that are radical left people.” He added, “they’re bad and we’re gonna find out if they are funding these things.”
Watch him here:
Also commenting in the meeting was White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who noted that “Antifa” has been responsible for a slew of disturbances of the peace and instances of domestic terror, including “riots, the attacks on ICE officers, the doxing campaigns and other political assassinations.”
Commenting on the group’s actions and the need to crack down on the organizations that aid, arm, and defend Antifa, Miller said, “It is sophisticated as well-funded. It is well-planned. There is really no parallel like this, anything to anything else in the country right now. There is an entire system of feeder organizations that provide money, resources, weapons.”
He further added, “And when they’re attacking ICE officers, they’re attacking federal buildings. Whether isolating public officials for harassment, doxing, intimidation, and ultimately attempted assassination, it is all carefully planned, executed and thought through. It is terrorism on our soil.”
Featured image credit: World Economic Forum, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons