Far-Right Activist: Antifa’s Roots Go Back to Nazi Era

President Trump hosted a White House roundtable Wednesday with administration officials and prominent right-wing commentators to highlight the administration’s actions against antifa, the Hill reports. The meeting came as federal authorities moved to crack down on protests in cities such as Portland and Chicago.

Participants included Nick Sortor—recently arrested at a Portland ICE protest after an alleged confrontation with demonstrators, according to NBC News—journalist Andy Ngo, commentator Jack Posobiec, and former reporter Brandi Kruse, all of whom have spent significant time reporting on or criticizing the antifa movement.

At the discussion, Posobiec argued that antifa has historical roots, linking the movement to anti-fascist activists who opposed fascism in the years before the Nazi rise in Germany; the New Republic and the Independent note that while anti-fascist protesters did oppose Adolf Hitler in the Weimar Republic, that context differs from contemporary U.S. protest movements. CNN, in a broader examination of the administration’s approach to speech, highlights a moment in which President Trump said, “We took the freedom of speech away,” while defending efforts to criminalize flag burning despite Supreme Court rulings that protect it as free expression.

Administration officials presented antifa as a serious left-wing threat with shadowy financial backers, pointing to details such as protest signs mounted on expensive paper and wooden handles as evidence. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem went further, saying antifa is “just as dangerous” as groups like Hamas, MS-13, or ISIS. Kruse, who said she formerly suffered from “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” described her political turn and added, “I’m happier, I’m more healthy, I think I’m even a bit more attractive.”

The group criticized mainstream media coverage as insufficient and asked right-wing outlets to help identify alleged backers of antifa. President Trump warned that the administration would respond forcefully: “They have been very threatening to people, but we’re going to be very threatening to them, far more threatening to them than they ever were with us, and that includes the people that fund them,” Reuters reports.