ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel was deliberately obtuse on his Wednesday show when he claimed that the Trump administration’s focus on Antifa is non-sensical because ANTIFA “is just short of anti-fascist.” Kimmel also pretended that the administration thinks Antifa is a terrorist group simply because they have matching signs.
Kimmel teed up a clip of Attorney General Pam Bondi by declaring, “The reason we know Antifa is organized against the government is because their matching signs indicate they are somehow in league with Kinko’s.”
In the clip, Bondi proclaimed, “You’re seeing people out there with thousands of signs that all match, pre-bought, pre-put together. They’re organized, and someone is funding it. We are going to get to the funding of Antifa . We're going to get to the root of Antifa , and we are going to find and charge all of the people causing this chaos in Portland and all of the cities across our country.”
The signs are proof of organizing. The violence is meant to be the proof of terrorism, but Kimmel tried to claim Bondi was claiming the signs were proof for the latter, “Yeah, and if we can't find them, we are going to pretend we did. Antifa is just short for anti-fascist. It's not a club you can join. There are no membership dues, but they have matching signs!”
Under that logic, North Korea—the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea—is the most democratic country on earth because it has “democratic” and “people” in its name.
Still, Kimmel then continued his bad faith argument by putting up a picture of a 2024 Trump rally where attendees all held signs that read “Witch Hunt,” and claimed that if signs are proof of terrorism then, “Okay, well, then I guess we'd better round up these domestic terrorists too.”
Nobody has ever argued that signs alone are proof of terrorism. However, people like Kimmel have tried to claim that Antifa is just an idea or an umbrella term for a movement that has no central headquarters that hands out marching orders, but Bondi was trying to argue that’s not true. If Kimmel and his late night comedy compatriots want to “speak truth to power,” they should at least focus on what the administration is actually saying.
Here is a transcript for the October 15 show:
ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live!
10/15/2025
11:39 PM ET
JIMMY KIMMEL: The reason we know Antifa is organized against the government is because their matching signs indicate they are somehow in league with Kinko’s.
PAM BONDI: You’re seeing people out there with thousands of signs that all match, pre-bought, pre-put together. They’re organized, and someone is funding it. We are going to get to the funding of Antifa . We're going to get to the root of Antifa , and we are going to find and charge all of the people causing this chaos in Portland and all of the cities across our country.
KIMMEL: Yeah, and if we can't find them, we are going to pretend we did. Antifa is just short for anti-fascist. It's not a club you can join. There are no membership dues, but they have matching signs! Okay, well, then I guess we'd better round up these domestic terrorists too.
