The Trump administration is moving forward with plans for an international conference this summer to address antifa and allied left-wing groups, according to three people briefed on internal planning. The gathering, tentatively scheduled for June or July, is intended to assemble officials from multiple countries for discussions on how to counter violence linked to the movement and to promote intelligence sharing among partners.
Organizers include senior figures at the State Department. Two of the sources identified Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas DiNanno as among those involved in developing the summit framework. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss deliberations publicly.
White House and State Department spokespeople framed antifa as a significant security concern for the administration. Tommy Pigott, the State Department’s principal deputy spokesman, described the movement in stark terms, saying the anarchists, Marxists and violent extremists associated with antifa have conducted a long-running campaign of bombings, beatings, shootings and riots across Western countries in pursuit of their agenda.
That characterization underscores the administration’s stance that left-wing political violence warrants concerted international attention. At the same time, some current and former officials question the timing and allocation of counterterrorism resources toward a decentralized movement amid other pressing threats.
A number of details about the proposed summit remain unresolved. As of last week, two of the people said, formal invitations had not been sent out. A State Department official similarly told journalists that no final summit date was set. It was also unclear whether the event would concentrate strictly on groups and individuals that self-identify as antifa, or whether it would address left-wing extremist activity more broadly. At times, senior administration officials have used the term antifa as shorthand for a spectrum of leftist extremism.
One source anticipated that many European governments would be among those invited. In November the administration designated four left-wing entities based in Germany, Italy and Greece as foreign terrorist organizations under U.S. law. Around the same time, seven individuals alleged to have links to a group called Antifa Ost stood trial in Germany on charges that included attempted murder.
Critics worry the planned summit could divert attention from other, higher-priority threats. Michael Jacobson, who served as director of strategy, plans and initiatives for the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau until 2025 and now works as a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said he was skeptical about allocating limited counterterrorism assets to the antifa issue at a time when Iran and Iran-aligned groups were generating plots tied to the war in the Middle East.
"I am just skeptical that now, with everything going on, when you see the number of plots being put together by Iran and Hezbollah, that there really is a compelling need to spend limited counterterrorism resources on the antifa threat right now," Jacobson said.
State Department officials have pushed back by noting a range of actions undertaken by the administration against transnational threats, and by pointing to efforts targeting Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis in Yemen and multiple drug cartels. The department framed the summit as part of a broader push the administration describes as unprecedented in combating terrorism worldwide.
The tensions in priorities reflect a wider debate inside U.S. security circles about where to focus finite enforcement and intelligence assets. Most Western counterterrorism agencies have increasingly prioritized risks stemming from Iran-sponsored actors, who intelligence services assess present an elevated danger to U.S., European and Israeli targets amid the war in the Middle East.
In advance of a joint U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran on February 28, the FBI issued a warning to law enforcement agencies that Tehran might respond with surprise drone attacks on targets in California, according to a security bulletin. European police authorities have similarly cautioned that the regional conflict has immediate security repercussions for the European Union, with an elevated threat of terror acts across the continent.
At the same time, supporters of the administration’s focus on antifa emphasize that individuals identifying with the movement have been implicated in violent acts. A federal jury in Fort Worth in the current month convicted nine people on terrorism-related and weapons charges for an assault on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Texas last year; prosecutors described those convicted as antifa operatives.
The administration’s attention to the movement is not new. In 2020, during weeks of unrest in Portland, Oregon after the police killing of George Floyd, then-President Trump first sought to designate antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. In August 2020 a self-identified antifa supporter shot and killed a member of the far-right group Patriot Prayer in Portland and was then shot and killed by federal and local law enforcement officers.
On the 2024 campaign trail the president again singled out antifa and pledged action against left-wing groups he accused of instigating violence following the September murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Publicly available evidence in that case has not linked the alleged assassin, identified as Tyler Robinson, to antifa. Soon after the assassination, the president signed an executive order labeling antifa a "domestic terrorist organization," a move legal experts have described as legally and constitutionally dubious and as raising free-speech concerns.
Observers of political extremism caution that antifa is not an organized political party or hierarchical group. A 2020 Congressional Research Service assessment described the movement as decentralized, lacking a clear command structure or singular leadership. Former and current experts, including past FBI leadership, have argued antifa is best understood as an ideology rather than a cohesive organization, a distinction that informs debates over legal and policy responses. Civil liberties advocates have warned that a heavy-handed approach risks criminalizing political viewpoints.
The administration appears to be seeking to convert its domestic focus into an international coalition. One official involved in planning said the team hopes to announce a global coalition to counter antifa near the time of the planned conference. How that coalition would be structured, which states would participate, and what concrete intelligence-sharing or operational mechanisms would be adopted remain open questions based on current disclosures from people familiar with planning.
The proposed summit highlights the challenge of balancing domestic political priorities and global security threats within counterterrorism strategy. Officials and analysts inside government continue to weigh the need to address violent acts tied to left-wing extremism against the persistent and growing risks associated with Iran-aligned groups and the broader instability stemming from the Middle East war.