By Gram Slattery, Humeyra Pamuk and Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON, March 31 (Reuters) - The Trump administration is organizing an international summit focused on countering the left-wing movement antifa and other groups, three sources familiar with the matter said, an effort that highlights the shift in the U.S. government's counterterrorism priorities over the past year.
The conference, tentatively planned for June or July, will convene officials from various nations to discuss strategies for battling antifa and encourage intelligence sharing, said the sources, who requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.
U.S. President Donald Trump has portrayed antifa as a severe threat to the U.S.
Counterterrorism experts argue it does not exist as an organized entity, though people claiming affinity to antifa have been involved in armed attacks in the U.S.
Among the officials organizing the event is Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas DiNanno, said two of the people.
In response to requests for comment, spokespeople for the White House and State Department both described antifa as a major security concern for the Trump administration.
"The anarchists, Marxists, and violent extremists of antifa have waged a terror campaign in the United States and across the Western world for decades, carrying out bombings, beatings, shootings, and riots in service of their extreme agenda," said Tommy Pigott, the State Department's principal deputy spokesman.
A QUESTION OF PRIORITIES
The planned event has raised concerns among some current and former officials, who argue that the summit would be a distraction when the U.S. faces threats from Iran-sponsored groups driven by 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," said Michael Jacobson, who was the director of strategy, plans and initiatives for the State Department's Counterterrorism Bureau until 2025. Now, he is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for the Near East Policy think tank.
A State Department official argued the administration had taken "unprecedented steps to combat terrorism worldwide," including many actions against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Yemen-based Houthis and various drug cartels.
Many details of the planned event were unclear, including which countries were invited and would participate.
As of last week, formal invites for the conference had not yet been sent, two of the people said. The State Department official said no summit date had been set.
It was also unclear if the event would focus narrowly on groups or individuals that self-identify with antifa, or on left-wing groups generally. At times, senior administration officials have used antifa as public short hard for leftist extremism of all stripes.
One source expected European governments to receive many of the invites. In November, the Trump administration designated four left-wing entities in Germany, Italy and Greece as foreign terrorist organizations under U.S. law. Seven people allegedly linked to one of those groups, known as Antifa Ost, went on trial in Germany in November for charges including attempted murder.
The source said administration officials hoped to announce a global coalition countering antifa around the time of the planned conference.
ACTS OF VIOLENCE - BUT NO HIERARCHY
Antifa, short for "anti-fascist," is not an organized political group but is a decentralized movement without a clear structure, command hierarchy or leader, according to a 2020 Congressional Research Service report.
Some experts on political extremism, along with former FBI director Christopher Wray, have argued that antifa is better viewed as an ideology than a cohesive entity, and legal and civil rights advocates have expressed concerns that Trump's pursuit of antifa amounts to an attempt to criminalize certain political views.
Supporters of the administration's focus on antifa point out that individuals who identify as antifa sympathizers have in fact committed acts of violence.
A federal jury in Fort Worth this month convicted nine people, who prosecutors said were antifa operatives, on terrorism-related and weapons charges for an attack on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Texas last year.
Trump first sought to designate the movement as a domestic terror organization in 2020, when left-wing demonstrators attacked federal buildings in Portland, Oregon during weeks of unrest following the police killing of George Floyd.
A self-identified antifa supporter shot and killed a member of far-right group Patriot Prayer in Portland in August 2020, and was in turn killed by federal and local law enforcement officers.
IRAN THREAT LOOMS LARGE
Most Western counterterrorism officials are now focused on the threat of Iran-sponsored attacks directed at U.S., European and Israeli targets.
Ahead of the joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28, the FBI warned law enforcement agencies that Tehran might try to retaliate for any U.S. strikes by launching surprise drone attacks in California, according to a security bulletin seen by Reuters.
European police body Europol has warned that the conflict has "immediate repercussions" for European Union security, with an increased threat of acts of terror on the continent.
Both at home and abroad, U.S. officials have in recent years focused more on right-wing extremism than left-wing extremism.
But Trump has made countering left-wing groups - and antifa in particular - a priority. He singled out the movement on the campaign trail in 2024, and he vowed to take action against left-wing groups he accuses of fomenting violence after the murder of conservative activist and ally Charlie Kirk in September.
Publicly available evidence in that case has not tied alleged assassin Tyler Robinson to antifa.
Shortly after the assassination, Trump signed an executive order labeling antifa a "domestic terrorist organization."
Legal experts have said the domestic terrorist designation is legally and constitutionally dubious and raises free-speech concerns.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery, Humeyra Pamuk and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Don Durfee and Alistair Bell)
