Top US counter-terror officials have warned their Australian counterparts to start combating Antifa and other violent far-left groups that pose a threat of “political terrorism”.
Senior Bureau Official for the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism, Monica Ager Jacobsen, told representatives from Australia, Canada and Europe during a meeting in Ottawa last month they needed to focus on far-left extremist terror, which the Trump administration believes is being underestimated.
According to prepared remarks seen by The New York Times and confirmed by officials briefed on the meeting, Ms Jacobsen said governments must combat “Antifa and far-left terrorism”, and highlighted threats from communists, Marxists, and groups with “self-identified antifascist ideologies”.
“It is important to recognise their actions as political terrorism rather than mere protest or criminality,” the prepared remarks stated.
The State Department confirmed in a statement that it was making a global effort to counter “Antifa-aligned terrorism”, said officials in other western countries shared its concerns, and said it had offered a $10 million reward for information that helps disrupt the finances of violent far-left groups.
The US officially designated Antifa as domestic terrorist organisation in September last year, sparking calls for Australia to do the same, and in November designated four European far-left extremists groups, including ultra-violent German group Antifa Ost, as foreign terrorist organisations.
ANTIFA is a terrorist group.
They operate under different names with impunity.
They need to be tracked down and their operations dismantled.Subscribe to Senator Babet on YouTube for the latest – https://t.co/N9M5tS9qO9 pic.twitter.com/GswFLucCLj
— Senator Babet (@senatorbabet) January 29, 2026
“In Australia we’re passing new ‘hate speech’ laws while ignoring organised political violence from the radical Left. You can’t criminalise words while excusing mobs,” United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet said after far-left violence erupted on Australia Day this year.
“Across the West, ANTIFA burn our flags, attack police, stab innocent people, smash our statues and desecrate our monuments, yet Labor and Liberal look the other way.”
Concerned Australians have been urging law enforcement to crackdown on domestic far-left extremist groups for years, while warning about a “two-tier” system where right-wing groups are heavily policed while radical leftist violence is ignored, and far-left activists openly work with corporate and state media journalists.
Roaming mobs of masked Antifa thugs attacked lone March for Australia rally attendees in Melbourne in August and September, in October pelted police with rocks and other missiles, and were responsible for a series of vicious assaults on people celebrating Australia Day on January 26 this year.
“Far Left ANTIFA are terrorists. It’s time to go after them with the full power of the state,” Mr Babet said in response to the October incident, where police were forced to use flashbangs to stop the violence.
No arrests were made over any of the attacks on members of the public despite many being caught on camera, or in relation to the firebombing of the family home of a nationalist activist or the regular vandalism of statues and memorials.
One violent extremist group responsible for destroying a large number of Melbourne monuments have not been brought to justice despite bragging about their crimes on social media, and were given a sympathetic interview by taxpayer-funded multiculturalism broadcaster SBS.
Australia Day supporters in Melbourne attacked for having an Australian flag. The police don’t do a thing. pic.twitter.com/BF7lPx8lwC
— Beckonthedawn (@beckonthedawn) January 26, 2026
Melbourne is a war zone.
Antifa are a terrorist group
They must be eliminated. pic.twitter.com/jinhnj5il2
— Preston (@CatholicPaws) October 19, 2025
Feral leftist counter-protesters bash an elderly patriot in an Australian flag shirt during the March for Australia rally in Melbourne.
Follow: @NoticerNews pic.twitter.com/y2oNdI2ssN
— The Noticer (@NoticerNews) September 3, 2025
Antifa and other far-left extremist groups attack attendees and police at Melbourne’s Land Forces Expo on an annual basis, and in September 2024 one protester set off an improved explosive device inside the Exhibition Centre where the defence industry event was being held.
But the bomber, a Sri Lankan who claims to be “transgender”, was not charged with terror offences despite carrying out the attack and being caught with far-left extremist material and 28 other homemade explosive devices, and was spared jail by a magistrate last year.
Another leftist Land Forces protester, former Victorian Socialist candidate Jasmine Duff was spared a conviction for assaulting two expos attendees after prosecutors suddenly dropped most of her charges and recommended her for a diversion.
In the US the Trump administration has directed resources previously used to target right-wing Americans towards cracking down on far-left groups such as Antifa, added Antifa to a list of targets contained in the National Intelligence Priorities Framework for the first time in history, and last month nine members of the group were found guilty over a gun and bomb attack on a Texas immigration detention facility.
The State Department is also planning to host a workshop for foreign law enforcement representatives on countering far-left extremism in The Hague in May, and will host a similar summit for government official in Washington DC in July.
The Antifa terror advice comes after the Trump administration in November last year ordered its embassy in Canberra to collect data on migrant crime in Australia, and the following month warned allied western nations mass immigration was causing “civilisational erasure”.
Header image: Left, Donald Trump (White House). Right, expo bomber Malith Shamera Fernando (LinkedIn).
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