 A prominent affiliate of the Iron Guard, a Romanian fascist organization also known as "the Legionnaire Movement", Trifa played a part in provoking the Legionnaires' Rebellion of 1941.His antisemitic discourse was suspected of helping instigate the parallel pogrom against the Jewish community in Bucharest.After being singled out as a rebel by Ion Antonescu, Romania's "Conducător" and a competitor of the Iron Guard, he spent the final years of World War II in Nazi Germany, as a detainee with privileged status.