By April Ryan
The White House wants to invoke the Insurrection Act as the Trump administration continues to target Antifa, which they consider leftist terrorist cells. An Antifa designation could also, in turn, render a classification as domestic terrorists. This Trump message was taken abroad last month. An American traveling with the White House press corps asked the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, if he would follow America’s lead and disavow Antifa.
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Compounding the problem is the Insurrection Act, a federal law that gives the U.S. president the power to deploy the military or federalize National Guard troops within the country to suppress insurrections, rebellions, or other severe civil unrest. The worry is that President Trump is ready to make that declaration amid current tensions across the country. The fight against what MAGA considers Antifa is playing out in Portland, Oregon, and Chicago, Illinois. Where some residents call it a “war zone.” Trump’s loyalist and White House senior policy advisor, Stephen Miller, questions why there is unrest when a National Guard presence is evident in a city?
Trump officials allegedly sent the National Guard to protect Portland, Oregon’s offices and federal buildings. The mayor of Portland is a white Democrat, Kieth Wilson, who leads the latest test case city that President Trump says is plagued with crime. Chicago is another “war zone” after President Trump sent the National Guard there recently. Protests have erupted due to the troop presence along with federal immigration officials. The administration’s targeting is not just for so-called crime-ridden cities. Organizations are also on the administration’s radar.
Further south in the red state of Texas, it is launching investigations into what they call racial leftist organizations. The state attorney general is launching the probes. Also, profoundly, in recent weeks, in mid-September, one of the founders, who no longer works with Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, had her phone taken by federal agents. That phone confiscation was part of a house raid believed to be part of a much larger federal investigation by the FBI. Sources near the organization confirm the Network is a grant-making organization that has given 40 million dollars to Black-led, front-line, grassroots organizations and impacted families throughout the country and the world, including for people building three water wells in Ghana, Africa.
Ironically, Charlie Kirk posted about the organization on his account the day he died. At this point, there is no correlation between the FBI probe and Kirk’s social media posts. Civil rights organizations are actively concerned that any direct action, meaning protest for causes that advocate for Black or brown people, will be targeted by this administration to be deemed domestic terrorism.
