On Wednesday night, in what has become a regular stream of seemingly-delusional edicts on his social network, President Trump appeared to imply that most of America belongs to a terrorist organization known as “ANTIFA”.

It is widely known outside of conservative circles that “antifa” is simply shorthand for anti-fascist. Most Americans overwhelmingly subscribe to the idea that fascism, most widely associated with Hitler’s 3rd reich under Nazi Germany, is a repressive form of violent dictatorship that stands in opposition to nearly every principle of a modern democracy.

The term “antifa” came about in the 1940s to signal those in opposition to Hitler, and more recently many Americans have described themselves as “antifa” to signal opposition to Trump’s fascist policies. Antifa is not an organization, has no members, and is merely the idea of opposing fascism.

Conservative leaders in government and rightwing media, as they are oft to do, took advantage of the fact that conservative voters generally lack an understanding of leftist concepts such as communism, socialism, CRT, woke, and now, anti-fascism. They began treating the abbreviation as an actual organization complete with leadership, a membership roster, and outside funding. Notably, no government official nor media pundit has ever produced evidence that such an organization exists.

Nonetheless, the President has declared this non-existent organization as a terrorist group, despite being unable to produce any evidence that any such group exists, let alone committed acts of terrorism.

While some argue that Trump is suffering from delusions due to a mental illness and truly believes a group named antifa, like the Loch Ness Monster, is real, many believe a more devious conspiracy is at play. Because nearly every American who does not support fascism would be considered “antifa”, Trump appears to be setting the stage to declare any American he wishes a terrorist, and use the full weight of the US government against them.

America’s declaration of a group as “terrorists” under both Democratic and Republican presidents has for decades been haphazardly applied and then removed from groups based almost entirely on their willingness to defend themselves or become victims of the American military. However, Trump’s attempt to attach the label to nearly every American who doesn’t support his regime not only vacates the true meaning of the term, but should be deeply concerning to every person, business, and organization in the US and worldwide.