President Trump says he is designating the decentralized anti-fascist movement known as “antifa” as a terrorist organization, as conservatives blame left-wing groups and ideas for creating the conditions that led to conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination. The Trump administration is “using this as a catch-all to go against the broader left and anyone who speaks out against fascism right now, while at the same time giving continued unchecked authority to the FBI to ignore the rise of right-wing violence,” says writer Will Potter. “The intention is to capitalize on this to crack down on their opponents and to consolidate authoritarian power.” Potter is the author of Little Red Barns, an investigation into the state repression of those who attempt to expose the harms of the factory farming industry, with mechanisms to criminalize journalism and label civil disobedience as terrorism through its crackdown on citizen journalists, environmentalists and animal welfare activists, says Potter.