Rubio urges international counterterrorism crackdown on the far-left

"It can no longer be denied, and it can no longer be ignored," Rubio said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio convened an international gathering focused on rallying support for what he called the Trump administration's fight against "far-left political terrorism," describing the threat as a major "blind spot" in the national security strategies of countries around the world.

"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 said during a speech opening the ministerial on Thursday. "You will no doubt see the dogma rear its head in the coverage of this very conference."

Rubio claimed this "extraordinary ideological prejudice" has led U.S. authorities to dismiss violence and terrorism "so long as they served a left-wing cause."

The secretary also claimed leftist groups were increasingly working alongside hostile foreign states, including 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 said.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, FBI Director Kash Patel and Education Secretary Linda McMahon participated in the event hosted by the State Department.

More than 80 countries were invited to the meeting, and representatives from 66 ultimately attended, according to a State Department spokesperson.

President Donald Trump has made combating political violence and domestic terrorism a cornerstone of his second term in office, but critics argue that his administration is myopically focused on the far-left -- overlooking threats from the opposite end of the political spectrum and other forms of extremism.

An analysis conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in 2025 found that while left-wing violence in the U.S. has increased over the past decade, "it has risen from very low levels and remains much lower than historical levels of violence carried out by right-wing and jihadist attackers."

The CSIS report concluded it was "important to resource all dimensions of the terrorism threat."

The American Civil Liberties Union has also taken issue with multiple actions taken by the Trump administration's counterterrorism approach, accusing it of targeting politically opposed but peaceful activists and donors "under the guise of addressing political violence and domestic terrorism."

In his remarks, Miller said a "hallmark" of left-wing violence was a "disingenuous appeal to civil liberties" to protect itself.

"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.

Although the State Department said Thursday's ministerial was intended to focus on the "transnational" nature of far-left terrorism, Rubio and other administration officials focused their remarks primarily on high-profile domestic attacks without any clear links to foreign actors, including the assassinations of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the failed assassination attempts targeting the president.

In his speech, Miller said these acts and other violence perpetuated by the far-left were motivated by "by envy, by hatred, by jealously."

He also claimed the decentralized left-wing movement known as antifa had gone global, and that international factions were now drawing from "common networks of funding, organization, and information sharing."

Antifa is an umbrella description for far-left-leaning militant groups that oppose the concept of authoritarianism, neo-Nazism and white supremacy. It does not have a publicly known centralized structure or leadership. In 2025, the Trump administration added four foreign antifascist groups to the Foreign Terrorist Organizations list, labeling them all as antifa groups. But only one (Antifa Ost) identifies as part of the antifa movement and it's not clear there are links between any of the foreign groups and members in the U.S.

"When you look at these violent antifa demonstrations, you see any photograph of those who are assembled -- to be blunt, not one of the people that is demonstrating looks like a normal person," Miller said.

"Trust your instincts," Miller told the audience.

"You know what normal is. You know what beautiful is. You know what good is," he said. "You will always be accused of raising the alarm too loud. If you wait until the point where the worst outcome is so obvious that no one can deny it, you've already lost the battle."

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