With the nation-wide protests gripping the United States amidst the pandemic, President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the country would be classifying the loose-knit Antifa movement as a terrorist group after blaming it for some of the recent spasm of violence in US cities.

“The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization,” Trump announced on Twitter, with little elaboration.

The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.

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— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2020

The president and some of his top advisors have blamed Antifa and groups they call “far-left extremists” for hijacking peaceful protests against police abuses after a black man’s death in Minneapolis. Nationwide rioting in dozens of cities was sparked by the videotaped death of the unarmed black man, George Floyd, during his arrest Monday.

“The ANTIFA led anarchists, among others, were shut down quickly. Should have been done by Mayor on first night and there would have been no trouble!” Trump tweeted.

He was referring to Jacob Frey, the Democratic mayor of Minneapolis, where a horrifying video of Floyd’s death,  after a police officer, Derek Chauvin,  kneeled on his neck, sparked the nationwide outpouring of rage, as well as protests elsewhere in the world. The officer kept his knee on Floyd’s neck even as onlookers pleaded him. Chauvin has been fired and charged with third-degree homicide.

Antifa follows far-left ideologies such as anti-capitalism and take up causes such as LGBTQ and indigenous rights. The term Antifa dates as far back as Nazi Germany. ‘Antifa’ is “borrowed from German Antifa, short for antifaschistische ‘anti-fascist’, in Antifaschistische Aktion (multiparty front initiated by the German Communist Party in 1932 to counter Nazism) and in other collocations”. The movement has had it presence in Europe, but came to United States in 1980s.

Antifa, has emerged in recent years, in part in opposition to racist demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. It is not known to have official leaders. Its members, often dressed entirely in black, protest against racism, far-right values and what they consider fascism, and say violent tactics are sometimes justified as self-defense. The group’s loose, diffuse organization would seem to make it a difficult target for the terrorist listing.

Domestic terrorist groups, the FBI says on its website, promote “the unlawful use, or threatened use, of violence … against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”

(With inputs from AFP)