The Trump administration has launched its long-anticipated crackdown on Antifa, with the FBI reportedly opening investigations and contacting journalists who have previously been victims of Antifa-related violence. Meanwhile, one of the main ideologists behind the movement, Rutgers University professor Mark Bray, has fled the United States for Europe—contradicting the often-repeated claim that ‘Antifa is not an organization’ and that Trump ‘can’t do anything’ about it.
Mark Bray, nicknamed ‘Dr Antifa’ by his students, is an assistant professor of history at Rutgers University and author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook—a book widely criticized by conservatives as dangerous. The Rutgers chapter of Turning Point USA, the think tank founded by the late Charlie Kirk, accused Bray of involvement with Antifa and launched a petition to have him dismissed. Shortly after, Bray fled the United States, possibly to avoid accountability. The petition has around 2,000 signatures at the time of writing.
‘I am not now, nor have I ever been, part of any kind of antifascist or anti-racist organization—I just haven’t. I’m a professor,’ Bray told The Guardian after arriving in Spain. ‘I don’t know whether these people believe that this is true or not, but I’m not so sure they care, because it serves a narrative they’re trying to promote,’ he said, repeating his claim that Antifa is not an organized movement, nor a terrorist entity.
However, in his 2017 book, Bray discusses arguments made by anti-fascist activists that militant tactics and direct action may be necessary to confront ‘fascist threats’. He characterizes militant anti-fascism as a tradition of collective self-defence—arguing that the use of force can be justified not only in response to violence but, in some Antifa interpretations, to prevent or pre-empt fascist mobilization.
Moreover, in 2017, while teaching at Dartmouth, Bray publicly endorsed violent protest in the aftermath of the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville, Virginia—a stance that prompted the university to distance itself from him. Bray was even accused of having donated to Antifa when he committed 50 per cent ‘of the author’s proceeds would go to the International Anti-Fascist Defense fund’ from his 2017 book.
Megyn Doyle, a student member of Turning Point USA at Rutgers, told Fox News Digital that the petition was necessary because Bray ‘puts conservative students at risk for Antifa to come in.’ She added: ‘You have a teacher who so often promotes political violence, especially in his book Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, which talks about militant fascism—a term synonymous with political violence.’
‘Trump vowed to crack down on organizations and networks linked to Antifa—prompting Bray’s flight from the country’
President Donald Trump announced that his administration would explore ways to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization following the assassination of Charlie Kirk on 10 September. An executive order issued on 22 September described Antifa as ‘a militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law. It uses illegal means to organize and execute a campaign of violence and terrorism nationwide to accomplish these goals.’ Following the designation, Trump vowed to crack down on organizations and networks linked to Antifa—prompting Bray’s flight from the country.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated on 22 September that Hungary could follow the Trump administration’s lead in banning Antifa—a decision the Hungarian government ultimately made on 26 September. Hungary has firsthand experience of the ‘militant tactics’ described by Bray: in February 2023, a group of Italian and German Antifa militants attacked pedestrians in Budapest, brutally beating one man with an iron bar. Among the perpetrators was Ilaria Salis, who has since become a Member of the European Parliament for an Italian far-left party and continues to evade accountability under parliamentary immunity.
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