By Rajwa Quasim
The U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has urged different countries around the world to join forces in confronting what he described as rising threat to left-wing extremism.
The Trump administration convened representatives from more than 60 countries in Washington, arguing that left-wing political violence stems from a “unique evil rooted in a deep resentment toward civilization.”
The Democrats criticized that Rubio’s focus on solely left-wing groups is politically influenced as there was no mention of right-wing extremism and violence.
According to The Washington Post, officials from most European nations, several Latin American countries and India, Indonesia and Singapore were included in the invited list.
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“Our counterterrorism doctrine has had a blind spot when it comes to extremist violence from the political left. Even today, the very idea that far-left terrorism could be a serious threat is treated as a right-wing fever dream,” said Rubio.
Rubio warned that left-wing terrorism has surged to levels not seen in decades. This effort fits with the Trump administration’s declared focus on cracking down on left-wing groups, such as Antifa (short for anti-fascist), a loosely organised far-left movement which was designated as domestic terrorist group. Washington also designated European groups such as the Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front (Italy), Armed Proletarian Justice (Greece) and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense (Greek) as Foreign Terrorist Organisations.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced new measures aimed at cutting off illicit funding. “At President Trump’s direction, Treasury is expanding its efforts to identify organizations that abuse charitable and nonprofit structures as vehicles for illicit finance. We are examining where tax-exempt status has been exploited, where charitable entities have become financial conduits for foreign influence activity,” he said.
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Bessent also pledged to take apart the financial networks propping up left-wing terrorism. “We will identify illicit funding, however artfully it is concealed. We will dismantle the networks that sustain political terrorism, however respectable their fronts may be. We will pursue those who enable political violence, however distant their jurisdictions,” he said.
On Wednesday, 11 Democratic lawmakers wrote to Rubio questioning whether his emphasis on left-wing groups could end up targeting lawful protests and political opponents. “We strongly urge the Department to return its focus to a serious mission set that is definitionally apolitical, data-driven, and rooted in reality,” the letter said, which was obtained by Reuters. They also argued that State Department is giving automatic approval to the political priorities pushed by the extremists within the administration.
In 2025, U.S. Department of Justice removed a 2024 internal study from its website, which indicated that far-right extremists were responsible for number of ideologically motivated deaths. But a study by thinktank Center for Strategic and International Studies reported that left-wing extremism has overtaken right-wing extremism for the first time in over three decades, though it noted that incidents related to both had a sharp fall over the years.