What are the most notable Antifa protests in the US in 2025?
Executive summary
The most notable events tied to “Antifa” in the United States during 2025 were a set of high‑profile local confrontations and a series of mid‑year attacks that federal and media actors later linked—controversially—to antifascist actors; the standout episodes include the extended Portland protests (the “No Kings” movement and the so‑called “Portland Frog” imagery), mid‑2025 attacks that targeted Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and several ICE facilities, a charged June demonstration in San Francisco against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and an April counter‑protest at a drag event where armed antifascist gun‑club members appeared [1] [2] [3]. All of these incidents are presented in public reporting with significant disagreement over scale, organization and culpability, and many analysts warn the label “Antifa” is often used loosely by politicians and outlets [2] [4].
1. Portland’s No Kings protests: local iconography and national attention
Portland’s 2025 protests—frequently described in reporting as part of the “No Kings” movement—became one of the year’s most visible flashpoints, producing viral images (the so‑called “Portland Frog” icon) and renewed clashes between demonstrators and police; reporting ties Rose City Antifa and affiliated groups to distribution of doxxing posters aimed at ICE officers and to tactics that escalated confrontations at the state capitol and federal facilities, while state and federal actors framed the city as a center of unrest [1].
2. Mid‑2025 attacks on Charlie Kirk and ICE sites: a cluster that prompted scrutiny
Security analysts and monitoring organizations noted a cluster of mid‑2025 incidents that targeted Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and three ICE facilities, incidents that media and some officials cited when discussing an Antifa role; however, investigators and independent analysts caution there is little public evidence that a single national Antifa command organized those attacks and stress that “Antifa” is a decentralized milieu rather than a hierarchical group [2] [5].
3. San Francisco June demonstration and national law‑enforcement reaction
A June demonstration against ICE in San Francisco drew federal and local attention and was cited in broader Justice Department discussions about antifa‑linked unrest; reporting on a Justice Department program later described such demonstrations as part of its focus on “antifa” extremism, which civil‑liberties groups say raises First Amendment concerns [3] [6].
4. April counter‑protest at a drag event: armed presence and controversy
In April 2025 several armed members of an antifascist gun club appeared at a drag event to counterprotest an anti‑LGBTQ demonstration, a discrete incident widely reported as emblematic of a turn to paramilitary posturing by some activists; analysts emphasize this was one specific, localized occurrence rather than proof of a broad, coordinated strategy across the movement [2].
5. Why attribution is contested: decentralized tactics, political framing, and intelligence shortfalls
Scholars and media outlets repeatedly note that Antifa operates as affinity groups without centralized leadership, which complicates attributing nationwide campaigns to “Antifa” even when individual adherents appear at protests; government actors—including the White House and some congressional sponsors—have framed 2025 unrest as justification for domestic‑terror designations, a framing critics say is politically motivated and legally fraught [7] [6] [8]. Independent monitors such as ISD and CSIS stress that while Antifa adherents were likely present at many disturbances between June and September 2025, there is no verified public reporting that Antifa centrally organized several of the most consequential events—an important distinction in assessing claims of orchestration versus opportunistic participation [2] [7].
6. The thin line between presence and responsibility
Reporting in 2025 illustrates a recurring pattern: dramatic incidents (property damage, doxxing of ICE staff, targeted attacks) are often seized by political actors as evidence of an organized Antifa threat, while researchers and journalists warn that the term is frequently stretched to cover disparate left‑wing protesters, lone actors, or opportunistic criminality; readers should treat attributions to “Antifa” with caution and look for primary investigative findings rather than political labels [2] [4] [9].