President Donald Trump’s time in office continues to prove marked by intense protest and counterprotest. This weekend, far-right demonstrators are yet again gathering in Portland, Oregon, and anti-fascist or antifa demonstrators have also made their intentions to yet again confront them abundantly clear. This Saturday morning, Trump weighed in on the situation on Twitter, asserting that antifa — despite not even constituting some kind of systematically organized group at any major level — could soon be designated a terrorist organization. Trump did not mention the also violent far-right demonstrators. He’s seemingly gone from “there are good people on both sides” to “only the leftist counterprotesters are the bad guys” at this point. It no doubt long simmered under the surface, really.
According to USA Today, this weekend in Portland, a full four white supremacist groups are expected to turn out, ranging from the Proud Boys to the Daily Stormers. Trump condemned none of them. Trumpeting the stated rally agenda from the white nationalists of “ending domestic terrorism,” meaning harsh responses to their racism, he instead tweeted:
‘Major consideration is being given to naming ANTIFA an “ORGANIZATION OF TERROR.” Portland is being watched very closely. Hopefully the Mayor will be able to properly do his job!’
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has long mobilized city authorities to work towards preventing some kind of violence on the streets this weekend, even declaring that not a single police officer would have the day off. Trump singling him out for criticism anyway indicates yet again how far he’s willing to go to avoid ticking off some his most fervent supporters among the far-right.
Already in Congress, Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana have introduced a resolution that would declare antifa a terrorist organization — although again, it’s not even really an organization with some kind of systematic leadership. It’s a populist movement with small local outposts with loose organization, meaning that enforcing this resolution if it was signed by the president would no doubt turn into a direct policing of protest activities. They’d have to draw a line if there was none there to begin with, after all.
Check out Twitter’s response…
Featured Image via screenshot
