Kristi Noem Compares Antifa to Mara Salvatrucha, Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic State

At a White House policy meeting, Kristi Noem this week compared the loose network of antifascist activists to MS-13, the Gaza-based organization, the Iran-backed group and ISIS, calling the loosely affiliated protesters “equally threatening” as officially recognized terror groups.

“They operate with the same complexity as MS-13, as TDA [Tren de Aragua], as the Islamic State, as Hezbollah, as the Palestinian faction, as all of them, they pose the same level of threat,” Noem said. “They have an agenda to destroy us, similar to other extremist groups we have confronted for decades.”

The discussion featured conservative online reporters including several prominent commentators among others who cover antifa protests.

Some of the groups mentioned by the secretary – the Palestinian, Lebanese, and jihadist factions – are officially classified as terror groups that control territory, run armed branches, have hierarchical leadership and have carried out large-scale assaults including bombings, kidnappings and assassinations.

Specialists in radical movements have frequently characterized the anti-fascist movement, by contrast, as having no centralized leadership, official membership or organizational structure, and it has often been portrayed by federal law enforcement as a loose network of activists who engage in protest activity, portions of which involve damage to belongings and street violence.

The roundtable follows an executive order issued in September classifying anti-fascist activists as a “homegrown terror group”.

Days before the announcement, a Proud Boys leader previously convicted and later pardoned for his role on January 6 wrote on social media: “Who is prepared to pursue anti-fascist activists? Because I know a few guys.”