Kristi Noem Equates Anti-Fascist Activists to Mara Salvatrucha, Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic State

At a White House policy meeting, the homeland security secretary this week likened the loose network of antifascist activists to MS-13, Hamas, the Iran-backed group and ISIS, calling the loosely affiliated street activists “equally threatening” as officially recognized terror groups.

“They operate with the same complexity as Mara Salvatrucha, as the Tren de Aragua, as Isis, as Hezbollah, as the Palestinian faction, as all of them, they pose the same level of threat,” the secretary stated. “They have an agenda to destroy us, similar to other extremist groups we’ve dealt with for decades.”

The discussion featured conservative online reporters such as several prominent commentators and others who report on anti-fascist demonstrations.

Some of the groups Noem cited – Hamas, Hezbollah and Isis – are formally designated terrorist organizations that hold land, run armed branches, maintain command structures and have carried out mass casualty attacks such as bombings, abductions and assassinations.

Extremism experts have long described antifa, in comparison, as lacking a central command, official membership or organizational structure, and it has often been portrayed by federal law enforcement as a decentralized movement of activists who participate in demonstrations, portions of which involve property destruction and public clashes.

The roundtable comes after an executive order issued in September designating anti-fascist activists as a “domestic terrorist organization”.

Shortly prior to the declaration, a Proud Boys leader previously convicted and later pardoned for his role on January 6 wrote on social media: “Who’s ready to go ANTIFA hunting? Since I am acquainted with several individuals.”