Secretary of State Marco Rubio convened a world gathering targeted on rallying help for what he known as the Trump administration’s combat towards “far-left political terrorism,” describing the menace as a significant “blind spot” within the nationwide safety methods of nations world wide.
“The very concept that far-left terrorism could possibly be a critical menace is handled as a right-wing fever dream, or worse, as a harmful fascist conspiracy,” Rubio stated throughout a speech opening the ministerial on Thursday. “You’ll little question see the dogma rear its head within the protection of this very convention.”
Rubio claimed this “extraordinary ideological prejudice” has led U.S. authorities to dismiss violence and terrorism “as long as they served a left-wing trigger.”
The secretary additionally claimed leftist teams had been more and more working alongside hostile international states, together with Cuba and Iran.
“You’re right here as a result of that is actual, and it’s getting worse. And it will possibly now not be denied, and it will possibly now not be ignored,” Rubio stated.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivers opening remarks throughout the Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism on the State Division on July 16, 2026, in Washington, D.C.
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White Home deputy chief of workers Stephen Miller, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, FBI Director Kash Patel and Training Secretary Linda McMahon participated within the occasion hosted by the State Division.
Greater than 80 nations had been invited to the assembly, and representatives from 66 finally attended, in line with a State Division spokesperson.
President Donald Trump has made combating political violence and home terrorism a cornerstone of his second time period in workplace, however critics argue that his administration is myopically targeted on the far-left — overlooking threats from the alternative finish of the political spectrum and different types of extremism.
An evaluation performed by the Middle for Strategic and Worldwide Research (CSIS) in 2025 discovered that whereas left-wing violence within the U.S. has elevated over the previous decade, “it has risen from very low ranges and stays a lot decrease than historic ranges of violence carried out by right-wing and jihadist attackers.”
The CSIS report concluded it was “necessary to useful resource all dimensions of the terrorism menace.”
The American Civil Liberties Union has additionally taken situation with a number of actions taken by the Trump administration’s counterterrorism strategy, accusing it of focusing on politically opposed however peaceable activists and donors “below the guise of addressing political violence and home terrorism.”
In his remarks, Miller stated a “hallmark” of left-wing violence was a “disingenuous attraction to civil liberties” to guard itself.
“That is the tactic that the left all the time makes use of to attempt to defend itself from going through felony punishment. It’s important that we’re smart sufficient and robust sufficient to know that these appeals should fall on deaf ears,” he stated.
White Home Deputy Chief of Workers Stephen Miller addresses the viewers throughout opening remarks on the Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism on the State Division on July 16, 2026, in Washington, D.C.
Finn Gomez/Getty Pictures
Though the State Division stated Thursday’s ministerial was meant to deal with the “transnational” nature of far-left terrorism, Rubio and different administration officers targeted their remarks totally on high-profile home assaults with none clear hyperlinks to international actors, together with the assassinations of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the failed assassination makes an attempt focusing on the president.
In his speech, Miller stated these acts and different violence perpetuated by the far-left had been motivated by “by envy, by hatred, by jealously.”
He additionally claimed the decentralized left-wing motion often known as antifa had gone international, and that worldwide factions had been now drawing from “widespread networks of funding, group, and knowledge sharing.”
Antifa is an umbrella description for far-left-leaning militant teams that oppose the idea of authoritarianism, neo-Nazism and white supremacy. It doesn’t have a publicly identified centralized construction or management. In 2025, the Trump administration added 4 international antifascist teams to the International Terrorist Organizations listing, labeling all of them as antifa teams. However just one (Antifa Ost) identifies as a part of the antifa motion and it is not clear there are hyperlinks between any of the international teams and members within the U.S.
“Whenever you take a look at these violent antifa demonstrations, you see any {photograph} of those that are assembled — to be blunt, not one of many individuals that’s demonstrating seems like a traditional individual,” Miller stated.
“Belief your instincts,” Miller advised the viewers.
“You already know what regular is. You already know what stunning is. You already know what good is,” he stated. “You’ll all the time be accused of elevating the alarm too loud. When you wait till the purpose the place the worst final result is so apparent that nobody can deny it, you’ve got already misplaced the battle.”
