Almost a year after U.S. president Donald Trump signed an executive order to designate antifa as a “terrorist threat,” his administration is attempting to single out leftist organizations, including Portland’s Rose City Antifa.
But the move announced by the Department of State on Wednesday doesn’t target the group directly: instead the federal government is designating Italy-based web service provider Autistici/Inventati (A/I) as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist.” The new designation would hypothetically block U.S.-based organizations that use A/I website servers, mailboxes and mailing lists, and people and institutions in the U.S. could face sanctions for doing business with them.
It’s not the first time that Trump has targeted the City of Roses for its left-leaning reputation: his rhetoric against the city goes as far back as eight years and two administrations ago. But his latest diatribes against Portland have leaned on perceived connections to “antifa” — an amorphous collection of people and organizers that share a broad leftist ideology.
And when he announced that he would send the military to Portland in late 2025, he called the city “war-ravaged” by “Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.”
But the administration’s executive order that directed “all applicable authorities” to investigate, disrupt and dismantle “any and all illegal operations” connected to antifa has had uncertain legal provenance since it was signed in late September 2025.
For starters, the executive order can’t lean on any applicable laws beefing up charges against “antifa” organizers, and it can’t open up new avenues for surveillance, constitutional law scholars said at the time.
And current U.S. law stipulates that the federal government can only formally designate foreign organizations as “terrorist organizations.”
But the administration’s Wednesday move against A/I — which is a foreign organization based out of Europe — represents an indirect way to target domestic organizations within the parameters of existing U.S. law.
“As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated entity that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and all U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with them,” the State Department said. “Financial institutions and other persons may risk exposure to sanctions for engaging in certain transactions or activities involving the designated entities, with prohibitions to include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of the designated entities.”
Later in their announcement, the Department of State listed the organizations that use A/I IT services: “anarchist cells” in Europe, an unnamed “far-left extremist media group,” an anarchist group in Georgia, and, of course, Rose City Antifa.
So far it is unclear how the stated sanctions will impact the group. As of Sunday, the group’s website remains live, although it’s unknown if it uses A/I tools to host its webpage.
The Oregonian/OregonLive was unable to reach Rose City Antifa members for comment by email.
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