Rubio, Miller Try to Rally Leaders Against Terrorism From Left

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday convened leaders from more than 60 countries to take part in the Trump administration's latest effort to quell what it calls "left wing" political terrorism, which Republicans have made a marquee issue heading into the midterm elections. Still, studies show there are few reported cases of such attacks in the US, especially compared to historically higher levels of far-right violence, the AP reports. With sweeping statements about the "alarming rise" of political violence by the left and the physical appearance of antifa supporters, Rubio and other Americans painted a dark image of the future if the "communists and Marxists" perpetrating these supposed acts are not defeated.

Rubio urged officials in attendance in Washington—mostly from European and Latin American countries— to unite to address the issue, which he says has been a "blind spot" in counterterrorism doctrine. "So many people in positions of power have repeatedly dismissed acts of violence and even terrorism as legitimate forms of political expression, so long as they served a left-wing cause," Rubio said in opening remarks. "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."

A report published last year by the Center for Strategic and International Studies found that left-wing terrorism attacks as of July 4, 2025, had surpassed those from the far right for the first time in more than 30 years. However, a closer look at the data reveals that the uptick reflects an extremely low starting level and a concurrent drop on the far right. There was an average of 0.6 left-wing incidents annually from 1994 through 2000, compared with an average of 20.6 on the right, the report shows. From 2016 to 2024, there were an average of four per year on the left and 22.7 per year on the right. Those numbers had dropped dramatically on the right as of early July 2025, with only one incident. Meanwhile, there had been five from the left. The report's authors noted that right-wing terrorism could easily return to elevated levels and that it is important to fight terrorism on both sides of the political spectrum.

Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff, spoke after Rubio and told the world leaders it's easy to spot left-wing threats, per the Hill. "It's not a coincidence that when you look at these violent antifa demonstrations, you see any photograph of those who were assembled, to be blunt, not one of the people that is demonstrating looks like a normal person," Miller said. "They're all deformed in some way."