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At a White House policy meeting, the homeland security secretary this week likened antifa to MS-13, the Gaza-based organization, the Iran-backed group and the Islamic State, describing the loosely affiliated protesters “just as dangerous” as officially recognized terror groups.

“They operate with the same complexity as MS-13, as TDA [Tren de Aragua], as Isis, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, as all of them, they pose the same level of threat,” the secretary said. “They have an agenda to destroy us, just like the other terrorists we have confronted for many, many years.”

The roundtable included rightwing social media journalists including Andy Ngo, Nick Sortor, Katie Daviscourt and others who report on antifa protests.

Several organizations mentioned by the secretary – the Palestinian, Lebanese, and jihadist factions – are officially classified as terror groups that hold land, operate military wings, maintain command structures and have executed mass casualty attacks including explosions, abductions and targeted killings.

Extremism experts have frequently characterized antifa, in comparison, as lacking a central command, formal membership or structured hierarchy, and it has often been portrayed by national authorities as a decentralized movement of campaigners who engage in protest activity, portions of which involve damage to belongings and public clashes.

The roundtable follows a presidential directive issued in September designating antifa as a “homegrown terror group”.

Shortly prior to the declaration, a Proud Boys leader previously convicted and later pardoned for his role on January 6 posted on X: “Who’s ready to go ANTIFA hunting? Since I am acquainted with several individuals.”