A Rutgers University professor who taught a course on anti-fascism has left the US, a day after he was blocked from boarding a flight to Spain, following a White House event where Donald Trump promised “very threatening” steps against antifa activists.
Mark Bray, a historian who has taught courses on anti-fascism at the New Jersey university, was attempting to board a plane at Newark airport late on Wednesday when he was informed at the boarding gate that reservations for him and his family had been cancelled.
The professor, nicknamed “Dr Antifa” by students, had said he was moving to Europe after receiving death threats. Turning Point USA activists have claimed that Bray, author of the 2017 book Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, is a “financier” for the leftwing movement.
“‘Someone’ cancelled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second,” Bray posted on Bluesky. “We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation ‘disappeared’.”
Bray told the New York Times earlier on Wednesday: “My role in this is as a professor. I’ve never been part of an antifa group, and I’m not currently.” He added: “There’s an effort under way to paint me as someone who is doing the things that I’ve researched, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.”