The petition asks the Pentagon to designate antifa groups as terrorists. | Jason Connolly/Getty Images White House 'antifa' petition written by pro-Trump troll Online organizer tied to Trump Twitter 'rooms' says he started petition to unify the right after Charlottesville.

A popular online petition to designate as domestic terrorists leftists known collectively as the "antifa" was written by a well-known pro-Trump troll. The petition gathered enough signatures this week to require a response from the White House.

The petition asks the Pentagon to designate antifa groups — the term is short for anti-fascists, including some of the leftists who confronted white supremacist groups in Charlottesville, Virginia — as terrorists, “just as they rightfully declared ISIS a terror group.” It was posted last week to the “We The People” website, a forum that allows anyone to submit and vote on petitions, with the goal of proposing homespun policies to the White House.


The petition’s viral dissemination on social media is a tactic aimed at focusing conservatives on a common enemy, the petition’s writer, who goes by the moniker “Microchip,” told POLITICO.

Even if the petition fails to yield policy changes — the most likely outcome, Microchip himself predicts, since the Pentagon does not designate terror groups — he said the submission has already done its job: help shift the narrative toward decrying “leftist violence” and galvanize conservatives.

The “We The People” website, created in 2011 by the Obama administration, hosts a mix of serious and fanciful submissions. Topics range from releasing President Donald Trump’s tax returns and preserving the National Endowment for the Arts to an infamous 2013 petition for the United States to construct the “Death Star.”

Any petition that gathers more than 100,000 signatures within 30 days gets a review and official response from the White House. The antifa petition passed that mark within four days and now stands at nearly 300,000 signatures, making it the third-most-signed submission currently posted. Its viral popularity has garnered — and, in turn, been reinforced by — massive media coverage, particularly on Fox News and online conservative outlets like the Washington Examiner and Breitbart.

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Microchip is an online provocateur who is routinely kicked off Twitter and claims to direct legions of automated bot accounts. He said getting conservatives to share and discuss the petition is the entire point, and not to prompt concrete action by the government.

He called the petition “a waste of time” but a useful distraction from recent infighting among conservative factions.

He created the petition on Aug. 17, the day after Trump made controversial remarks in which he blamed “both sides” after white nationalist rallies in Charlottesville.

Microchip told POLITICO he wrote it with the explicit intent of stoking conservative rage and forcing the GOP establishment to take a stand or risk becoming targets themselves.

“It was to bring our broken right side together” after Charlottesville, he said, “and prop up antifa as a punching bag.”

“So the narrative changed from 'I hate myself because we have neo-Nazis on our side' to 'I really hate antifa, let's get along and tackle the terrorists,’" he explained.

Microchip claims to be one of the bridges between 4chan trolls and more mainstream conservatives on social media, including the pro-Trump “rooms” mapped by POLITICO. But he said there were no bots involved in signing the petition itself because of verification measures in place on the website.

“Botting this is worthless for what I needed it to do,” Microchip said. “I needed real engagement.”

His petition was promoted by heavy hitters on conservative and "alt-right" Twitter, including Breitbart editors, YouTube stars and lesser-known players from the Twitter “rooms.” The alt-right is an offshoot of conservatism that has become associated with white supremacy, white nationalism and the neo-Nazi movement.

This is not Microchip’s first such petition. He posted another, nearly identical and provocative submission calling for Black Lives Matter to be designated as a terrorist group. With approximately 119,000 signatures, that petition also earned a White House response, along with considerable mainstream press coverage.

“This was a test,” Microchip said, to see whether an even more massive social media campaign could drive media attention and deflect criticism of the alt-right toward liberal hooligans. “You can call it an extreme form of ‘whataboutism,’” he explained.

Although he sees this as a successful test, Microchip questioned whether his strategy can work absent “controversial public gatherings” like Charlottesville and last week’s protests in Boston and other cities.

“Our biggest problem is being able to replicate what we did over the last 5 days,” he tweeted on Wednesday. “I wish we could turn this into a well oiled machine.”