During Wednesday’s White House roundtable on “Antifa,” Trump Cabinet secretaries compared it to international drug cartels and vowed to dismantle it “brick by brick,” while the President described Antifa as “treasonous, probably.”

Antifa, which the President has labeled a “domestic terrorist organization,” is widely seen as a movement of people opposed to fascism and racism. It is not believed to be a formal organization. BBC News describes it as “a loosely organized, leftist movement that opposes far-right, racist and fascist groups,” and which “lacks a distinct leader, membership list or structure. In 2020, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress that Antifa was better defined as an ideology than as a formal organization.”

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem told roundtable attendees, “One of the individuals we arrested recently in Portland was the girlfriend of one of the founders of Antifa.”

Secretary Noem said they are “hoping that as we go after her, interview her and prosecute her, we will get more and more information about the network and how we can root them out, and eliminate them from the existence of American society.”

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She also said that “this network of Antifa is just as sophisticated as MS-13, as TdA, as ISIS, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, as all of them.”

“They are just as dangerous. They have an agenda to destroy us, just like the other terrorists we’ve dealt with for many, many years. And today is the day that we have a president that won’t tolerate it, and will stand up and fight for the American people.”

Similarly, Attorney General Pam Bondi said that “fighting crime is more than just getting the bad guy off the streets. It’s breaking down the organization, brick by brick. Just like we did with cartels. We are going to take the same approach, President Trump, with Antifa, destroy the entire organization from top to bottom. We’re going to take them apart.”

“Their hatred for President Trump, and for law and order agendas, fuels their violence,” Bondi said. “We saw what’s happening in Portland and Chicago, and you saw what happened in Dallas. No longer. It is not activism, it’s anarchy. We can’t, and we will not, let masked terrorists burn our buildings, attack our law enforcement, and intimidate our communities.”

She declared that the Trump administration is “deploying the full might of the federal law enforcement to crack down on Antifa and other domestic terrorist organizations.”

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President Trump said, “we’re going after Antifa criminals and all who fund and support their campaigns are in serious trouble, and we have a lot of records already, a lot of surprises, a lot of bad surprises — people that you would never think.”

He also asked the group to identify the “funders” of Antifa: “These are people that do not have good intention for the country, and that’s treasonous, probably.”

Critics blasted the event.

“After the US bombed multiple boats in the middle of the ocean, murdering people on grounds that they were allegedly ‘carrying drugs,’ the US Attorney General says ‘Just like we did with cartels, we’re going to take the same approach…with Antifa,'” wrote Zeteo News’ Prem Thakker.

Attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council observed, “Cartels have actual leadership structures, central funding, command and control, and more. ‘Antifa’ is mostly a philosophy. That the Attorney General doesn’t know the difference is quite the thing to admit!”

Bill Kristol, the director of Defending Democracy Together, wrote: “Which is more alarming? That the Homeland Security secretary might actually believe that ‘Antifa’ is as dangerous as Hezbollah or Hamas? Or that she’s willing to engage in this level of lying and demagoguery? Neither is good!”

Olga Lautman, a Russian intelligence expert and senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, pointed to Bondi’s remark about cartels and asked: “Are they planning on sending missiles to American cities to carry out extrajudicial killings.”

SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah issued this warning: “Please understand that This is Trump regime explaining how they will use the government to prosecute Democrats. Page 1 of the fascist playbook is imprison political opponents so that the fascist has one party rule.”

Noem: One of the individuals we arrested recently was the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa and we’re hoping as we go after her and prosecute her, we’ll get more and more information about the network and how we can root them out and eliminate them from the existence of… pic.twitter.com/83xedial2t

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 8, 2025

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Image via Reuters

Just hours after President Donald Trump called for him to be jailed, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker fired back — taunting, daring, and challenging the President in a striking rebuke.

Asked on camera to respond to President Trump’s remarks, Governor Pritzker said, “Well, let’s start with the idea that this is a convicted felon — I mean, think about that — who’s threatening to jail me.”

“I gotta say, this guy’s unhinged,” Pritzker said of the President.

“He’s insecure, he’s a wannabe dictator, and there’s one thing I really want to say to Donald Trump,” the governor continued, before looking directly into the camera.

READ MORE: ‘Grave Danger’: Democrat Warns Trump’s ‘Authoritarian Takeover’ Would Let GOP Rule ‘Forever’

“If you come for my people, you come through me. So come and get me.”

When asked what he meant, Pritzker replied: “You know as well as I do.”

The governor also told MSNBC’s Jacob Soboroff that Trump “said he was going after the worst of the worst. It’s not going after the worst of the worst when you’re just literally stopping children who happen to be brown and asking them for papers as if they’re gonna have proof that they’re a U.S. citizen.”

“We want everybody to pull out your phones,” he added, “and film everything you see.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Governor Pritzker vowed to “not back down,” and warned that “Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power. What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?”

Pritzker: “This guy is unhinged. He’s insecure. He’s a wannabe dictator. And there’s one thing I really want to say to Donald Trump. If you come for my people, you come through me. So come and get me.” pic.twitter.com/3QBrovBpZs

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 8, 2025

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U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, one of the most outspoken members of the Democratic Party, took to the Senate floor to explain what he says is President Donald Trump “enacting a well thought out plan so he and his allies can rule forever.”

“We aren’t on the verge of an authoritarian takeover,” the Connecticut Democrat declared. “We are in the middle of it. But I worry people don’t see the whole scheme. They just pay attention to each new daily outrage.”

He detailed what he says is the Trump administration’s five-point plan.

Step one: “Turn the justice system into a political witch hunt operation that punishes critics for free speech and immunizes loyalists for actual criminality.”

READ MORE: ‘Full-Blown Authoritarianism’: Governor Fires Back After Trump Says He Belongs ‘in Jail’

“We are seeing this at scale right now,” he said. “The indictment of James Comey, for no crime.” Murphy explained that no prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Virginia would sign the indictment.

“President Trump sent his personal lawyer to take over that office. Because only she would sign that indictment.”

Murphy explained that the goal is not to arrest everyone who opposes the President, but rather to “just put enough fear into the ranks of those who might speak truth to power,” so that they might “stay quiet.”

Step two: “Use government power to compel the media to tell only the regime’s narrative and to silence critics.”

He explained that that would include eliminating the free press and replacing it with state media.

“I don’t know that I’d go so far to say that we have state run media in the United States yet, but there is an attempt underway to try to use the vast regulatory powers of the administration to censor media.”

That includes threatening to pull TV station licenses, as well as the “consolidation of media into the hands of allies of the president.”

READ MORE: ‘The Ground Has Shifted’: Experts Warn After Trump’s ‘Gnat’ Speech to U.S. Navy

“One family that has just taken control of a major media group that owns, amongst other properties, CBS, is looking to also take control of CNN, and may have an ownership stake and a control stake in TikTok,” Murphy said. “That family has shown a willingness to censor contents. Pulling Stephen Colbert off the air, and to put in place, essentially, Trump approved sensors for their future news content.”

Step three: “Use the military to perform political intimidation in places with high levels of opposition to the regime.”

He said sending the military to blue cities is “illegal.”

“But it is designed to once again quell dissent and protest. This isn’t about public safety, this is about political intimidation,” Murphy alleged. “And you’re just naive if you think that folks aren’t going to be a little less interested in showing up at a protest if they are worried about getting roughed up by law enforcement.”

Step 4: “Seize control of Congress’s spending and tax powers to use those powers to reward loyalists and punish opponents.”

He said he cannot understand why there is not “bipartisan agreement” among Democratic and Republican lawmakers to oppose Trump “seizing” Congress’s power to tax and spend.

Step 5: “Rig the rules and the information. Tilt the election playing field your way and destroy the idea of truth.”

This includes, Murphy said, Trump demanding red states redraw congressional districts to allow the GOP to add more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Totalitarian states can’t accept truth, so they try to destroy truth,” Murphy explained. “That’s what Donald Trump is doing.”

“I know this sounds extreme,” Murphy wrote. “It is.”

“I know I sound overly alarmist,” he continued. “I don’t think I am. Trump is enacting a well thought out plan so he and his allies can rule forever. But it’s not too late to stop them.”

“If you allow yourself to connect the dots. If you allow yourself to see the whole story — the totality of this story — you will see the grave danger that we are in.”

I know this sounds extreme. It is.

I know I sound overly alarmist. I don’t think I am.

Trump is enacting a well thought out plan so he and his allies can rule forever.

But it’s not too late to stop them. We can peacefully and forcefully mobilize now. We have the power. pic.twitter.com/0f2nw60FOC

— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) October 8, 2025

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