We might keep in mind that Antifa likely arose in response to the increased public profile of the white nationalist and neo Nazi groups, and not the other way around. And it's clear, from my own perspective, my bias if one wants to call it that, that it was the words of candidate Trump, and then President Trump which emboldened those right wing groups to flex their muscles in a more public fashion.
So, it is not difficult for me to lay the blame on Trump himself. Praising the body slamming of a journalist, whose only "crime" was attempting to ask the candidate a question, would clearly energize the right wing, not the left wing. To put it mildly, the president is not helping any. At all. And here's the thing: what the president says carries a lot more influence then just about anybody else. It should not, in my opinion, because I personally think he's an idiot, but the media hangs on his every word, and here we are now, the media in an uproar over his praising the body slamming of a journalist even as a Saudi journalist with legal residence in the United States is murdered in a Saudi embassy.
Again, which group is going to feel he's on their side here, Antifa, or the Proud Boys? The media repeats and broadcasts his words, and his words encourage right wing hate groups. Period.
The Proud Boys are in the news this week, their leader invited to talk to a mainstream New York Republican group. Good grief, why invite such a guy to speak?!
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/proud-...new-york-city-gavin-mcinnes-event-2018-10-18/