A Democratic candidate for attorney general in Iowa reposted comparisons of antifa to the American troops who fought in D-Day, screenshots from his personal X account show.
Nate Willems, a former Iowa state representative and labor lawyer, is running to become Iowa’s next attorney general. His campaign page says that he will work to secure convictions for violent crimes; however, reposts on his X account boost Antifa, a U.S. government-designated domestic terrorist group responsible for violent riots in Portland, Oregon and Berkeley, California, among others.
Willems is running against Republican incumbent Brenna Bird, who is seeking a second term. Bird supports immigration enforcement while Willems openly criticized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in American cities in a post on his campaign website from Jan. 28.
Willems claims on his campaign website that “he will work with prosecutors and local law enforcement.”
Violence repeatedly broke out between rioters and law enforcement during Antifa-led protests in Portland throughout May and June 2020, The Associated Press reported on Aug. 6, 2020. Police even had to utilize tear gas as the protesters closed in on the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse, according to the outlet.
“A plane full of uniformed antifa, circa 1944,” one of the reposts on Willems’ account reads, referring to U.S. Army paratroopers in what appears to be a D-Day aerial assault.
Willems’ campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
President Donald Trump designated antifa as a domestic terror organization in an executive order on Sept. 22, 2025.
Further reposts on Willems’ account made comparisons between antifa and the U.S. veterans who stormed Normandy during the amphibious invasion of Nazi-occupied France in World War II. During the amphibious assault on Omaha Beach, roughly 2,400 American troops gave their lives, according to the National Archives.
Trump called Antifa “sick” and “dangerous” on Sept. 17, 2025, in a Truth Social post following the assassination of Turning Point USA’s leader, Charlie Kirk.
“I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION,” Trump said in the post. “I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices.”
Trump condemned “some individuals who adhered to the alleged shooter’s ideology embraced and cheered this evil murder [of Charlie Kirk] while actively encouraging more political violence” in a presidential memorandum on Sept. 25, 2025.
Willems also reposted content from the American Civil Liberties Union advocating for the masking of students in public schools in 2021, according to screenshots obtained by the DCNF.
Willems showed his support for the policy through his repost, even though the efficacy of masking in schools was disproved by multiple scientific studies.
The real-world effectiveness of child mask mandates had not been shown with high-quality evidence, according to a 2024 systematic review in the Archives of Disease in Childhood that was published by the National Institutes of Health.
The research to support masking in schools was “so unreliable that it probably should not have been entered into the public discourse,” The Atlantic reported, citing Noah Haber, an interdisciplinary scientist who co-authored a systematic review of COVID-19 mitigation policies.
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