"[55] According to terrorism experts Colin Clarke and Michael Kenney, writing in War on the Rocks, direct actions such as anti-Trump protests, demonstrations against the alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos and the clash with neo-Nazis and white supremacists at the Unite the Right rally "reflects many Antifa supporters' belief that Trump is a fascist demagogue who threatens the existence of America's pluralistic, multi-racial democracy.

"[9] Antifa activists' ideologies, as well as their involvement in violent actions against far-right opponents and the police has led some scholars and news media to characterize the movement as far-left[2][63][64][65][66][67] and militant.

[49][68][69] In his article "The Rise of the Violent Left" for The Atlantic, Beinart writes that antifa activists "prefer direct action: They pressure venues to deny white supremacists space to meet.

"[8] ABC News notes that "[w]hile antifa's political leanings are often described as 'far-left,' experts say members' radical views vary and can intersect with communism, socialism and anarchism.

[9] When Italian dictator Benito Mussolini consolidated power under his National Fascist Party in the mid-1920s, an oppositional anti-fascist movement surfaced both in Italy and countries such as the United States.

[57] Modern antifa politics can be traced to opposition to the infiltration of Britain's punk scene by white power skinheads in the 1970s and 1980s, and the emergence of neo-Nazism in Germany following the fall of the Berlin Wall.

[11][12] In the late 1980s and 1990s, ARA activists toured with popular punk rock and skinhead bands in order to prevent Klansmen, neo-Nazis and other assorted white supremacists from recruiting.

[88] According to Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at the California State University, San Bernardino, antifa activists feel the need to participate in violent actions because "they believe that elites are controlling the government and the media.

[80] According to the Los Angeles Times, antifa protesters have engaged in "mob violence, attacking a small showing of supporters of President Trump and others they accused, sometimes inaccurately, of being white supremacists or Nazis.

[103] Antifa activists wear masks to hide their "identity from protestors on the other side (who might dox people they disagree with) or from police and cameras" and for philosophical reasons such as the beliefs that "hierarchies are bad and that remaining anonymous helps keep one's ego in check.

"[104] Joseph Bernstein from BuzzFeed News says that antifa activists also wear masks because "they fear retribution from the far right and the cops, whom they believe are sympathetic if not outright supportive to fascists.

[114]In November 2018, police investigated a left-wing group associated with antifa, Smash Racism D.C., following a protest by 12-20 people outside the home of The Daily Caller founder Tucker Carlson, who they accused of being a racist and white supremacist.

"[20] Alexander Reid Ross, a lecturer in geography and an author on the contemporary right, has argued that antifa groups represented "one of the best models for channeling the popular reflexes and spontaneous movements towards confronting fascism in organized and focused ways.

[126][127][128] Veteran radical activist Noam Chomsky described antifa as "a major gift to the right", arguing that "the movement was self-destructive and constituted a tiny faction on the periphery of the left.

"[21] Eleanor Penny, an author on fascism and the far-right, argued against Chomsky that "physical resistance has time and again protected local populations from racist violence, and prevented a gathering caucus of fascists from making further inroads into mainstream politics".

[21] Natasha Lennard has argued against Chomsky and others, citing Richard B. Spencer's suspension of his college tour in March 2018, as "a sharp rebuttal to the glut of claims that antifa practices serve as a gift to the far right.

"[134] In September 2017, Politico obtained confidential documents and interviews indicating that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) believed that "anarchist extremists" were the primary instigators of violence at public rallies against a range of targets in April 2016.

[157] Two days later, Barr claimed that "[w]e have evidence that antifa and other similar extremist groups, as well as actors of a variety of different political persuasions have been involved in instigating and participating in the violent activity.

[164] Trump's remarks were similar to false social media rumors during preceding months that planes and buses full of antifa gangs were preparing to invade communities, allegedly funded by George Soros.

[182][183] Bellingcat researcher Eliot Higgins discovered an image of British actress Anna Friel portraying a battered woman in a 2007 Women's Aid anti-domestic violence campaign that had been re-purposed using fake antifa Twitter accounts organized by way of 4chan.

[30][35] In October 2017, a conspiracy theory claiming that antifa groups were planning a violent insurrection or civil war the following month spread on YouTube and was advanced by far-right figures including Alex Jones, Lucian Wintrich, Paul Joseph Watson, and Steven Crowder.

[72] According to the ADL, the language used in the document appears designed to sow division and features many statements that do not align with the sentiments of anti-fascist organizers, often clumsily mimicking "left wing" rhetoric.

[194][195] During the nationwide George Floyd protests against police brutality and racism in May and June 2020, false claims of impending antifa activity circulated through social media platforms, causing alarm in at least 41 towns and cities.

[202] In an appearance on Fox News's The Ingraham Angle in June 2020, Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani claimed that "Antifa" as well as "Black Lives Matter" and unspecified communists were working together to "do away with our system of courts" and "take your property away and give it to other people", asserting without evidence that they receive significant funding from an outside source.

[203] In June, 2020, the California Highway Patrol's air unit launched a search for "antifa buses" in response to Instagram and Facebook posts showing a van with the slogan "Black Lives Matter" written on it.

[204] Later in June 2020, a multiracial family on a camping trip in Forks, Washington, were accused of being antifa activists, harassed and trapped in their campsite when trees were felled to block the road.

[218][219] A false claim that a facial recognition software company had identified participants in the incursion as antifa activists originated in a report by Rowan Scarborough published in The Washington Times, and was promoted on the U.S. House floor by Representative Matt Gaetz.

According to The Guardian, the only death resulting from an anti-fascist attack recorded in the database was that of Willem van Spronsen, who was shot dead by police while allegedly firebombing a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Tacoma, Washington, in 2019.

[235] Voice of America, a US state-owned international radio broadcaster, summarized a report by the Network Contagion Research Institute as stating that "far-left movements such as antifa, while decentralized and seen as less lethal than their counterparts on the far right, are just as capable of turning peaceful protests into violent confrontations with law enforcement".

Josh Lipowsky, a senior research analyst with the Counter Extremism Project, stated that "the decentralized antifa movement poses a lesser threat than the better organized groups on the far right.