Veteran journalist Andy Ngo criticized liberal narratives dismissing Antifa as mere ideology during an interview with Fox News Digital. This came after he attended a White House roundtable with President Trump, where Antifa was discussed following its designation as a domestic terrorist organization. Ngo highlighted the group's organized nature and shared personal experiences of violence.
President Donald Trump hosted a roundtable at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the threat posed by Antifa, a far-left militant movement that describes itself as antifascist. The event followed Trump's September 2025 executive order designating Antifa a domestic terrorist organization. Andy Ngo, a journalist who has covered Antifa for nine years, attended alongside other independent journalists to share firsthand accounts of violence.
Ngo pushed back against pundits and elected officials who downplay Antifa violence as simply an ideology. "It is an ideology, but Neo-Nazis organize around an ideology, jihadists organize around an ideology, so what's your point really?" Ngo told Fox News Digital. "The point you're really trying to do, when people bring that up, is to run cover for Antifa because these people on the left know that organized militant Antifa networks themselves and individuals operate as shock troops for their cause."
He cited specific incidents, including a June 2019 attack in Portland where masked assailants beat him with weapons, and no arrests followed. Ngo also referenced the 2020 assassination of Trump supporter Aaron Danielson in Portland, where the killer left a manifesto stating, "I am 100% Antifa." Antifa has been accused of organizing violent riots during the 2020 'defund the police' protests after George Floyd's death and recent attacks on federal immigration facilities.
Ngo expressed optimism after the roundtable, noting little prior support from mainstream media or officials. "I've been reporting on Antifa now for about nine years, and, for some of that time, it did feel like I was reporting on something that nobody who could do something about it would listen," he said. He voiced gratitude to Trump for dedicating nearly two hours to the topic despite global priorities.
The event was bittersweet for Ngo, who lost his father earlier in 2025. His parents were refugees from communism in Vietnam, making Antifa's anarchist-communist ideology personally relevant. Ngo warned that media misinformation portrays Antifa as opposing only fascism and racism, masking its goal of nihilistic violence and becoming 'ungovernable.'
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem compared Antifa's sophistication to groups like MS-13, ISIS, and Hamas. She noted the recent arrest of the girlfriend of Antifa's Portland founder and stated the administration's goal is to 'eliminate [Antifa] from the existence of American society.' Noem added, "These individuals do not just want to threaten our law enforcement officers, threaten our journalists and the citizens of this country. They want to kill them."