Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem slammed Antifa during a White House roundtable discussion with reporters on Wednesday, likening far-left troublemakers to terror groups like ISIS.
“I want to thank the new journalists here today for telling their stories and for being able and willing to go to the streets and to cover what’s happening here in America. Many times, the legacy media has looked the other way, refused to tell the stories,” Noem began.
“The networks have not really focused on what this is and what damage it is doing to our country and how this network of Antifa is just as sophisticated as MS-13, as TdA, as ISIS, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, as all of them,” she continued.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks in Quito, Ecuador, in July 2025. (Getty Images/Alex Brandon)
“It should be clear to all Americans that we have a very serious left-wing terror threat in our country, radicals associated with the domestic terror group Antifa that you’ve heard a lot about lately,” he said. “And I’ve heard a lot about them for 10 years, and other far-left extremists have been carrying out a campaign of violence against ICE agents and other officials charged with enforcing federal law.”
Trump emphasized his belief that many Antifa rioters are paid to cause mayhem, and teased an announcement to that effect.
“You’ll be finding it out very soon,” he said. “You should see what we have on these people.”
One reporter asked Trump about designating Antifa as a foreign terrorist organization. Trump said it “sounds good to me.”
“Would you like to see it done?” he asked the other officials at the roundtable. “You think it would help? I’d be glad to do it. I think it’s the kind of thing I’d like to do.”
Other top officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, spoke at the roundtable, before the reporters in the room shared horror stories about their experience covering the black-bloc rioters.
Members of the Communist Party USA and other anti-fascist groups burn an American flag on the steps of the Colorado State Capitol on Jan. 20, 2021, in Denver, Colorado. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Image)
The common theme was gratefulness for the Trump administration’s acknowledgment that Antifa is real and is well-organized. The reporters blasted legacy media for either outright refusal to cover Antifa violence, or for downplaying it.
“Thank you, Mr. President, for having us here,” said reporter Julio Rosas. “And, you know, not to sound like a broken record, but it needs to be said that Antifa is real. It’s real. It’s a threat.”
