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At a White House policy meeting, Kristi Noem this week compared the loose network of antifascist activists to MS-13, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic State, calling the decentralized street activists “equally threatening” as officially recognized terror groups.

“They operate with the same complexity as MS-13, as TDA [Tren de Aragua], as the Islamic State, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, each one of these, they are just as dangerous,” the secretary said. “They have an agenda to destroy us, similar to other extremist groups we have confronted for decades.”

The discussion featured rightwing social media journalists including several prominent commentators and others who report on anti-fascist demonstrations.

Some of the groups mentioned by the secretary – the Palestinian, Lebanese, and jihadist factions – are officially classified as terror groups that control territory, run armed branches, have hierarchical leadership and have executed mass casualty attacks including bombings, kidnappings and assassinations.

Extremism experts have frequently characterized the anti-fascist movement, in comparison, as having no centralized leadership, formal membership or organizational structure, and it has often been portrayed by national authorities as a decentralized movement of campaigners who participate in demonstrations, some of which has included damage to belongings and public clashes.

This meeting comes after an executive order issued last month classifying antifa as a “homegrown terror group”.

Days before the announcement, Joe Biggs who was convicted and then pardoned for his actions during the Capitol events wrote on social media: “Who’s ready to go ANTIFA hunting? Because I know a few guys.”