The Homeland Security Secretary Compares Anti-Fascist Activists to Mara Salvatrucha, the Palestinian Militant Group, the Lebanese Faction and ISIS
At a White House policy meeting, the homeland security secretary this week compared the loose network of antifascist activists to the notorious gang, Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS, calling the decentralized protesters “equally threatening” as officially recognized terror groups.
“They are just as sophisticated as MS-13, as TDA [Tren de Aragua], as Isis, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, as all of them, they are just as dangerous,” Noem said. “Their goal is to dismantle our society, similar to other extremist groups we have confronted for decades.”
The roundtable featured conservative online reporters such as Andy Ngo, Nick Sortor, Katie Daviscourt among others who report on antifa protests.
Several organizations Noem cited – the Palestinian, Lebanese, and jihadist factions – are formally designated terrorist organizations that control territory, run armed branches, have hierarchical leadership and have executed mass casualty attacks including explosions, abductions and targeted killings.
Extremism experts have long described the anti-fascist movement, in comparison, as lacking a central command, formal membership or structured hierarchy, and it has often been portrayed by national authorities as a decentralized movement of campaigners who engage in protest activity, portions of which involve property destruction and street violence.
The roundtable follows a presidential directive issued last month designating antifa as a “homegrown terror group”.
Days before the announcement, a Proud Boys leader previously convicted and later pardoned for his role on January 6 posted on X: “Who is prepared to pursue anti-fascist activists? Because I know a few guys.”
