Trump is Lying About Antifascism

Evan Balgord
Editorial - Canadian Anti-Hate Network

Illustration by Hazel Woodrow/Canadian Anti-Hate Network; source photograph by Molly Riley

On September 22, 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring “Antifa” a “domestic terrorist organization.” News organizations, pundits, and posters alike immediately took to defining for the general public ‘what is Antifa’ and asking ‘can Trump do that?’

Most of the news coverage—including CNN—has done Trump’s work for him, demonizing an entire ideology and movement on false grounds and setting the stage for the regime to go after anybody resisting them on the basis of their supposed antifascist-ness.

Antifascism is an ideology and a large and complex social movement with many separate groups that identify as antifascist with their own beliefs, interpretations, and activities. There is no group called “Antifa,” and it certainly is not a “domestic terrorist organization.”

As an antifascist organization ourselves, we can help explain antifascism and why the far-right in the United States and Canada see us as an obstacle that has to be cleared in order to carry out their smash-and-grab of the political establishment.

One one side we have far-right movements that harbour racism and other forms of hate that are incompatible with a multicultural society. They want different things: some of them want the USA and Canada to be run as Christian governments where women can’t vote, where marital rape is legal, and people can’t have lifesaving abortions. They have formed an alliance with white nationalists, who want people who aren’t white and European to be rounded up in concentration camps and mass deported, or worse. This, along with taking and keeping power for personal gain, are their end goals. 

Far-right movements use violence to dominate their opponents and to recruit. They enjoy it. When they win, they use the power of the state to carry out violence on a massive scale, except now it’s legal. These movements have captured the United States.

While there are many definitions of “fascism,” one of the most straightforward comes from the United States Holocaust Museum Encyclopedia: “Fascism is an ultranationalist, authoritarian political philosophy… It opposes communism, socialism, pluralism, individual rights and equality, and democratic government.” Not all far-right movements are fascist, but many far-right movements include many or most of these qualities and are opposed by antifascists because they advance the fascist agenda.

On the other side we have antifascists, who may come from a variety of different beliefs, but agree on the main point that we can’t let the far-right carry out its racist and misogynistic agenda. The end goal of the antifascists is simple: prevent and defeat fascism. There is no hierarchical organizing in the antifascist movement, or a group called ‘Antifa.' The antifascist movement is also not aligned with the Democrats in the United States, or the Liberal Party in Canada. It’s the underdog in this fight.

We think of antifascism as being the belief that fascism must be confronted everywhere and in every form it appears. It is also a movement that organizes around this principle. Antifascists are people who make up this movement.

Antifascist Shane Burley wrote in ¡No Pasarán!: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis, “although there is certainly overlay and fuzzy boundaries, the term ‘fascism’ does not apply to all the far-right, yet antifascism takes on an expanded list of opponents based on their fascist potential or their ability to maintain some of the most egregious aims, effects, or consequences of fascism.” He also says antifascism “must take on challenges where it sees potential far-right growth, even when that is not agreed upon by the larger public or subculture.”

In the middle between fascists and antifascists are the bystanders. The far-right can’t carry out their violent goals without people going along with it. That’s why the far-right has to lie about antifascists. They are terrified that as they make their goals more and more obvious, bystanders will become resistors and antifascists. So they have to criminalize the people organizing against them and keep them from connecting with communities – because then people would see that resisting the hateful far-right agenda is necessary and possible.

You might be asking about the government and other institutions. Won’t they protect us here in Canada? As we’re seeing in the United States, and in several other examples in history, once the far-right takes political power, those institutions can be captured and turned on the public very quickly. 

And make no mistake, Canada may be a few steps and a few years behind the United States, but the evolution of far-right movements here, and their influence on our politics, has closely mirrored America’s. Seizing this moment, when Trump is criminalizing resistance, we have politicians, far-right news outlets, and white nationalists lying about antifascists here in Canada too, for the same reasons. The far-right wants to villainize, isolate, and defeat the movements that would effectively resist them so that they can carry out their racist, smash-and-grab agenda.

Dr. Amarnath Amarasingam, a professor from Queen’s University with expertise in terrorism, told journalist Rachel Gilmore “the goal is to produce supplication in advance, get people to self-censor and be afraid to criticize the government about anything. It’s pretty plainly out of the authoritarian playbook.” 

Dr. Stephanie Carvin, a professor from Carleton University who specializes in national and international security, told Gilmore that Trump’s Executive Order declaring antifascists terrorists “should be understood more broadly as a campaign to crack down on any kind of dissent and frame opposition to Trump Administration policies as terrorism. In that sense it is dangerous. Even if it doesn’t succeed, they will ruin people trying.”

The lie goes something like this: ‘Antifa’ are an organized group of violent criminals, working with or for the Democrats or Liberals, who get into street brawls with patriotic Canadians or Trump supporters. Sound familiar?

Nothing they’re saying about antifascists is true, and what they’re not telling you is that most of the time these ‘street fights’ break out, it’s because far-right groups show up to hurt people and antifascists get in their way. Sometimes antifascists dress in all black to make it harder for far-right activists to identify them because if they are identified, it often leads to harassment and threats for them and their family. This is called black bloc, and it’s a safety precaution, not a group, it doesn’t necessarily mean people are planning to be violent or do a crime, and it’s not ‘Antifa’.

Sometimes antifascists have shown up at far-right events looking for a confrontation, or pushed or punched first. Those instances, however, are extremely rare compared to how often the far-right uses violence, especially in Canada, and such instances are not endorsed or supported by all antifascists. 

Editor’s Note: This is an explanation of what is happening, not an endorsement of violence or criminal behaviour. The Canadian Anti-Hate Network has never engaged in, aided, or funded violence or criminal behaviour. This is another lie spread by far-right groups that see CAHN as an obstacle.

In Charlottesville in 2017, when torch carrying Nazis came for their “Jews will not replace us” march, it was antifascists who stood between them and clergy. In 2019, when homophobes came to physically attack Hamilton Pride, it was antifascists who stopped them from breaking their way into the crowd. There were no antifascists defending a Calgary library in 2023 when Derek Reimer, a hate preacher with a violent criminal record, pushed his way into a room full of families. Scared for their children, unprepared parents had to physically restrain the shouting man until police arrived.

Antifascists that get between violent far-right activists and their targets are a small minority of all antifascists and demonstrate just one of dozens of ways to be an antifascist. More than black bloc, antifascism in Canada looks like your grandmother, union members, teachers, and parents with kids showing up to an anti-racist rally, tearing down racist stickers and signs, or watching their local neo-Nazis on social media so that they can warn the people the neo-Nazis are targeting.

Antifascism is broad and diverse. It is not a hierarchical movement and we are not its leaders. We are, however, a proudly antifascist nonprofit that does ethical and legally defensible journalism.

Antifascist journalism has exposed members of neo-Nazi groups in the Canadian Armed Forces. We have published the most comprehensive piece of work on the transnational extremist network grooming and extorting Canadian kids. We have prevented far-rightists and neo-Nazis from having access to children as school staff and instructors. We identified a decades old international fascist gang as being key behind the recent rise of far-right militant organizing Canadian Active Club scene. We record what the far-right says when they think no one else is paying attention, and pass those admissions onto you.

And that's just what we've been able to publish. Behind the scenes, we have supported families in diverting teenagers away from far-right extremism, and provided advice to people dealing with the impacts of these ideologies on their personal lives.

We believe in protecting Canada from far-right movements that harbour racism and other forms of hate that are incompatible with a multicultural democracy. We believe in working towards a just and inclusive country that lives up to the promises in the Charter where nobody feels unsafe because of racism and other forms of hate.

If you believe in those things too, congratulations! You might be an antifascist.

If you are new to antifascism, our guide 40 Ways to Fight the Far-Right: Tactics for Community Activists in Canada is an excellent starting point. If you’ve identified as an antifascist for a long time, you might find something new or inspiring. 

The guide contains information about a wide range of tactics you can take to fight the far-right, a brief overview of the current landscape of the far-right in Canada, and a list of resources to learn more. 

40 Ways offers ideas for people of all backgrounds, identities, and skill levels. While we encourage people to show up in person, there are also many options for people who aren’t able to do that.

Together, these actions present a variety of tactics which raise the cost of participation in far-right movements and, we believe, will keep communities safer. 

We invite you to think about 40 Ways to Fight the Far-Right: Tactics for Community Activists in Canada, like the Guide for Pride Defenders before it, as less of a rule book and more like a family cookbook. We’re not an authority, we’re a small group of people who have collected lessons learned and strategies developed by antifascists and other social justice activists, with the hope that you’ll take them, try them, and build from them.