Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted representatives from more than 60 countries at the Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism in Washington on July 16, 2026, calling left-wing violence a 'blind spot' in counterterrorism.
The State Department unveiled a policy to deny visas to foreign nationals who finance, recruit, or incite far-left terrorist networks, citing economic sabotage and coordinated violence.
A CSIS report found that left-wing incidents averaged 0.6 per year from 1994-2000 versus 20.6 for right-wing, and the 2025 uptick to 5 incidents reflected a drop in right-wing attacks to 1.
Eleven Democratic lawmakers wrote to Rubio warning the focus could target lawful protests; the ACLU and some allied officials expressed skepticism about the threat level.
Rubio opened the Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism by declaring that the threat from Islamic militancy was "severely diminished" and that left-wing violence had been a "blind spot" in counterterrorism. He urged representatives from more than 60 countries, mostly European and Latin American, to share intelligence and coordinate action. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller followed with an apocalyptic portrayal of leftist ideology, calling its adherents "deformed" and warning they would turn Western society into a "gulag". FBI Director Kash Patel and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also attended.
“A bomb planted by a neo-Nazi group was 'a nefarious and murderous act of evil.' It is, but a bomb planted by a Marxist revolutionary; well, that's just merely a tragic excess of idealism.”
The State Department announced a new visa restriction policy the same day, blocking entry of foreign nationals who finance, recruit, incite or otherwise enable far-left terrorist networks. The policy covers those who participate in economic sabotage or facilitate convergence of such networks for violent ends. Since November 2025, Washington has designated four European anarchist groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations: Antifa Ost (Germany), the Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front (Italy), Armed Proletarian Justice (Greece) and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense (Greece). Rewards of up to $10 million have been offered for information on their financing. President Trump had already labeled the domestic antifa movement a terrorist organization in 2025.
The conference aligns with Trump's campaign-season focus on left-wing groups ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump has repeatedly called Democratic leftists "communists" and said they pose a bigger threat than World War II or the 9/11 attacks. Eleven Democratic lawmakers wrote to Rubio on Wednesday, warning that the focus on left-wing groups risked targeting lawful protests and political opponents. The American Civil Liberties Union also cautioned against designating groups as far-left terror organizations. Some allied officials privately expressed skepticism, telling The Washington Post that their own security assessments did not rate the left-wing threat as highly as right-wing or Islamist terrorism.
A 2025 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies found that left-wing terrorism incidents in the US had surpassed those from the far right for the first time in more than 30 years as of July 4, 2025. However, the shift reflects a collapse in right-wing incidents rather than a surge on the left. From 1994 through 2000, left-wing attacks averaged 0.6 per year against 20.6 on the right. Between 2016 and 2024, the averages were 4 left and 22.7 right. By early July 2025, there had been five left-wing incidents and only one right-wing incident. The report's authors cautioned that right-wing terrorism could easily return to elevated levels.
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Rubio asserted that Iranian proxy networks are "increasingly intimately tied to leftist militant groups around the world," though he provided no evidence. He also accused Cuba's Communist leaders of having "helped build the far left" in the United States. The administration plans a second law enforcement workshop with Germany, following a May workshop on far-left threats. Counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka has discussed using foreign terrorism labels for antifa to pursue Americans with links to the movement, The Washington Post reported.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted officials from more than 60 countries in Washington on Thursday, urging a global crackdown on far-left political violence and announcing new visa restrictions targeting members of such groups.
AI text based on reports by BBC, RTP, Washington Post and other publishers. Published .