Secretary of State Marco Rubio convened an international gathering Thursday, calling for a global crackdown on what he termed "far-left political terrorism." During the State Department event, Rubio asserted that this threat represents a significant oversight in the national security strategies of many nations.
"The very idea that far-left terrorism could be a serious threat is treated as a right-wing fever dream, or worse, as a dangerous fascist conspiracy," Rubio stated in his opening remarks. He contended that an "extraordinary ideological prejudice" has led U.S. authorities to overlook violence and terrorism when it aligns with left-wing causes, and claimed that leftist groups are increasingly collaborating with adversarial foreign states such as Cuba and Iran.
"You are here because this is real, and it is getting worse. And it can no longer be denied, and it can no longer be ignored," Rubio told attendees.
The ministerial, hosted by the State Department, included White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Education Secretary Linda McMahon. Representatives from 66 of the 80 invited countries were in attendance.
President Donald Trump has prioritized combating political violence and domestic terrorism during his second term. However, critics argue his administration's focus is disproportionately on the far-left, potentially neglecting threats from other extremist ideologies. An analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in 2025 indicated that while left-wing violence in the U.S. has seen an increase over the past decade, it originated from very low levels and remains considerably lower than historical levels of violence associated with right-wing and jihadist attackers. The CSIS report recommended that all dimensions of the terrorism threat be adequately resourced.
The American Civil Liberties Union has also voiced concerns, accusing the Trump administration's counterterrorism efforts of targeting political activists and donors under the guise of addressing political violence.
During the event, Miller described a tendency for left-wing violence to leverage "disingenuous appeals to civil liberties" for protection. "This is the tactic that the left always uses to try to protect itself from facing criminal punishment. It is essential that we are wise enough and strong enough to understand that these appeals must fall on deaf ears," he said.
Administration officials, including Rubio and Miller, referenced domestic incidents such as the assassinations of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, as well as an attempted assassination of the president, suggesting these acts were motivated by "envy, by hatred, by jealously." Miller further claimed that the decentralized movement known as antifa has a global reach, with international factions sharing common networks for funding, organization, and information. The Trump administration previously designated four foreign antifascist groups as terrorist organizations in 2025, though the links between these groups and U.S. members remain unclear. Antifa is generally understood as an umbrella term for far-left groups opposing authoritarianism, neo-Nazism, and white supremacy, without a known centralized leadership.