Here’s what to know about the four foreign groups and how, according to one former CIA operative, the designation helps the Trump administration confront Antifa on U.S. soil.

Italy, Home of ‘World’s Largest Anarchist Network’

One of the newly declared FTOs hails from Italy, where fascism originated under dictator Benito Mussolini in the 1920s.

The group is called the Informal Anarchist Federation, also known as the International Revolutionary Front.

The group has claimed responsibility for attacks in Italy, Greece, Spain, Germany, the UK, Indonesia, Chile, Brazil, and Mexico, according to the report.

The Informal Anarchist Federation declares that “armed struggle” is necessary against nation-states and “The Fortress Europe,” according to the State Department.

The profile states that the group was a sign that Italy had become “the birthplace of a new threat that has spread to other countries.”

By then, the Informal Anarchist Federation had been responsible for “dozens of attacks” over a 25-year span in Italy and elsewhere—a trend that Italian authorities had “underestimated” partly because the attacks caused no fatalities, according to the West Point report.
However, this type of “insurrectionary anarchism … has become the most dangerous form of domestic non-jihadist terrorism in the country,” the report stated.
The Informal Anarchist Federation “has ideological and solidarity ties with Greek anarchist groups,” it stated.

Greek Anti-Capitalist Groups

Revolutionary Class Self-Defense and Armed Proletarian Justice are two newly designated FTOs that are based in Greece.
Both claim to be “anti-capitalist” and are known to use improvised explosive devices in attacks against Greek governmental targets.

Revolutionary Class Self-Defense has been outspoken in its solidarity with Palestine’s conflicts with Israel; the group dedicated two recent attacks to the Palestinians.

In February 2024, an explosive device targeted the Greek Ministry of Labor, but officials evacuated the area, so there were no injuries.
In April 2025, Revolutionary Class Self-Defense claimed responsibility for that attack and also for an explosion at the Hellenic Train offices, saying that railway safety concerns motivated the attack.

Members of the Greek police counterterrorism unit investigate the area outside Hellenic Train offices after a bomb exploded in Athens on April 11, 2025. The U.S. State Department designated both the Greece-based Revolutionary Class Self-Defense and Armed Proletarian Justice groups as foreign terrorist organizations. Aris Oikonomou/SOOC/AFP via Getty Images

The other Greek group, Armed Proletarian Justice, claimed responsibility for a 2023 bombing attempt at a police headquarters in Athens, Greece.

In a public post on an anarchist website, the group said: “You were lucky this time, the same will not apply next time. We dedicate our action to those who have been murdered, tortured, beaten and raped by the Greek Police.”

A group known as Antifa Ost, German for “Antifa East,” stands out among the four new FTO designees partly because of its methods.

As its nickname, the Hammerbande—German for “Hammer Gang”—implies, Antifa Ost has been known to bludgeon its victims with hammers. Hammer attacks have been carried out in broad daylight, online videos show.

However, at the time of the FTO designation, German authorities downplayed the threat that Antifa Ost might pose.

German government spokesperson Steffen Meyer said Washington acted without influence from Berlin in declaring the group a terrorist organization.

The U.S. designation of Antifa Ost as an FTO followed Hungary’s decision to impose that label on the group.

In 2023, outrage spread among Hungarians after Antifa Ost members were accused of injuring nine people at a right-wing gathering in Budapest, Hungary, described as “extremist” in the European press. At least one person was a passerby who was singled out for the attack because he wore camouflage-print clothes, marking him as a potential fascist to the attackers, Hungary Today reported.

Demonstrators hold Antifa flags and banners during a Revolutionary May Day march in Berlin on May 1, 2025. The Trump administration designated the German group Antifa Ost as a foreign terrorist organization; it is also known as “Hammerbande,” German for “Hammer Gang.” Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images

Prosecution of one suspect, Italian citizen Ilaria Salis, was interrupted in 2024 after she won a seat in the European Parliament, granting her immunity.

A social media account under the name “antifaost” states in its profile: “Action against the far right in eastern Germany. Never again fascism!”

Trump’s order commanded agencies to “investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all illegal operations—especially those involving terrorist actions—conducted by Antifa or any person claiming to act on behalf of Antifa.”

“In the turn of the new year, you’re going to see some very righteous prosecutions and investigations being publicized.”

An Antifa demonstrator kicks a smoke bomb back toward federal officers outside Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Portland, Ore., on Oct. 5, 2025. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

“These foreign groups and domestic Antifa communicate back and forth,“ he told The Epoch Times. ”There are degrees of collaboration. The FTO designation gives authorities here more tools to crack down on domestic extremists in ways that have already been settled in court.”

Although federal laws define FTO, there is no such definition for “domestic terrorist organization.” That designation might face a court challenge.

“However, it narrows the dangerous, anti-free speech ‘countering violent extremism’ designation” that originated under President Barack Obama, Waller said.

Trump’s “domestic terrorist” label relies on laws that define terrorism, while Obama’s “violent extremism” label lacked such legal underpinnings. Therefore, the Obama-era label could easily be applied in a “random and arbitrary” way, he said.

Together, the domestic and foreign designations weaken U.S.-based groups.

“American Antifa is networked with foreign Antifa, and so this is a way to go in and to use foreign terrorism support laws against American terrorist groups,” Waller said.

Some people harbor misconceptions about Antifa, he said. Observers may accept that fascism is bad. So, because the groups say they are “anti-fascist,” people perceive that “they must be good guys,” Waller said, and that violent or unruly protests result from “youthful frustration.”

“They’re not just out there to smash windows. … Their goal is to overthrow our government,” he said, perhaps one city at a time.

Antifa employs tactics and ideology espoused by Russian dictator Josef Stalin, according to Waller.

Post-World War I, the goal of German Antifa, established in 1932 under Stalin’s influence, was to “tear out” political centrists and polarize the nation. Communists joined anarchists on one side, opposing Nazis on the other. That polarization is what brought German dictator Adolf Hitler to power, he said.

The Unity Congress of Antifa at the Philharmonic Opera House, organized by Germany’s Communist Party in response to Benito Mussolini’s rise in the 1920s, in Berlin on July 10, 1932. Public Domain

Future Ramifications

Waller called the FTO designations “a really smart move” to prevent the groups’ adherents from spreading propaganda in the United States or entering the country. The designation also blocks access to domestic bank accounts.