Politics
Trump steps up campaign against antifa, vows ‘very threatening’ steps
- US president asks federal govt to treat antifa as terror group.
- Trump threats action against left-wing groups and donors.
- “We’re going to be very threatening to them,” says president.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday promised “very threatening” steps against antifa and asked right-wing media allies for help identifying backers of the movement he has asked the federal government to treat as a “terrorist organisation”.
Nearly a month after the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, Trump has threatened action against left-wing groups and donors with no demonstrated ties to the killing.
The Republican president has also moved to push federal law enforcement and troops into Democrat-run cities from Chicago to Portland, Oregon, over the objections of local officials and despite ongoing judicial review.
Trump welcomed supportive media personalities to a White House event on Wednesday to discuss their experiences with what they described as a rash of violence targeting conservatives in recent years, including by antifa adherents. The event included no discussion of violence aimed at left-wing or Democrat individuals.
“They have been very threatening to people, but we’re going to be very threatening to them, far more threatening to them than they ever were with us, and that includes the people that fund them,” Trump said.
Antifa appears to be a decentralised movement lacking a unifying organisational structure or detailed ideology, according to the US Congressional Research Service, a government body.
Trump threatened to pursue antifa during his 2017–2021 term in office, and in September called it a terrorist organisation in an executive order. Since then, US law enforcement officials have not identified any antifa members or sources of funding, or laid out any related criminal charges.
Trump requested participants at the Wednesday event to name groups they say carry out violence, as well as their funders. Guests included right-wing social media personalities Jack Posobiec, Savannah Hernandez and Andy Ngo.
Trump and members of his cabinet, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who were in attendance at the event, said they would look into the groups named and solicit more information if needed.
Trump has ordered National Guard troops to Chicago and Portland, Oregon, citing threats to federal officials, following earlier deployments to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. He has also said he will send troops to Memphis.
Those orders are under an ongoing judicial review and have been opposed by Democrat mayors and governors, who say Trump’s claims of lawlessness in those cities do not reflect reality.
Trump has threatened to invoke an anti-insurrection law last invoked during the Los Angeles riots of 1992 to sidestep any court orders blocking him.
On Wednesday, Trump scolded reporters for giving insufficient coverage to left-wing violence before leaving the event “to go now to try and solve some problems in the Middle East.”
US President Donald Trump purchased about $100 million in municipal and corporate bonds from mid-November to late December, his latest disclosures showed, including up to $2 million in Netflix and Warner Bros Discovery bonds just weeks after the companies announced their merger.
Financial disclosures posted on Thursday and Friday showed the majority of Trump’s purchases were municipal bonds from cities, local school districts, utilities and hospitals.
But he also bought bonds from companies including Boeing, Occidental Petroleum and General Motors.
The investments were the latest reported assets added to Trump’s expanding portfolio while he is in office.
It includes holdings in sectors that benefit from his policies, raising questions about conflicts of interest.
For example, Trump said in December that he would have a say in whether Netflix can proceed with its proposed $83 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, which faces a rival bid from Paramount Skydance.
Any deal to acquire Warner Bros will need regulatory approval.
A White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said on Friday that Trump’s stock and bond portfolio is independently managed by third-party financial institutions and neither Trump nor any member of his family has any ability to direct, influence or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested.
Like many wealthy individuals, Trump regularly buys bonds as part of his investment portfolio.
He previously disclosed at least $82 million in bond purchases from late August to early October.
US President Donald Trump has reiterated his claim of having stopped a war between Pakistan and India, while also saying that Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked him for saving at least 10 million lives.
He made the remarks at the renaming of Southern Boulevard to Donald J Trump Boulevard in Washington on Friday.
“In a year, we made eight peace deals and ended the conflict in Gaza. We have peace in the Middle East…We stopped India and Pakistan from fighting, two nuclear nations…The Pakistani Prime Minister said Donald Trump saved at least 10 million people, and it was amazing,” he said.
The US president further recalled that the Pakistani prime minister’s remarks were an honour for him.
Trump cited his administration’s foreign policy record and repeated assertions of brokering peace between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Trump has made similar claims multiple times since May 10 last year, arguing that US pressure helped defuse tensions between India and Pakistan.
Saudi Arabia’s 90-year-old King Salman was discharged from hospital after undergoing medical tests in the capital Riyadh, the kingdom’s Royal Court said on Friday, adding that the results were “reassuring”.
The monarch “left the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh today (Friday) after undergoing medical tests that proved reassuring”, the royal court said in a statement shared on state media, having announced his admission earlier in the day.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude oil exporter, has for years sought to quell speculation over King Salman’s health.
He has been on the throne since 2015, though his son Mohammed bin Salman was named crown prince in 2017 and acts as de facto ruler.
The monarch’s well-being is rarely discussed, but he has been admitted for surgery and tests on multiple occasions in recent years.
In 2024, the Royal Court said he suffered from lung infections, which he recovered from.
He was hospitalised in May 2022, when he went in for a colonoscopy and stayed for just over a week for other tests and “some time to rest”, the official Saudi Press Agency reported at the time.
He was also admitted to hospital in March 2022 to undergo what state media described as “successful medical tests” and to change the battery of his pacemaker.
In 2020, he underwent surgery to remove his gall bladder.
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