{"id":346,"date":"2026-07-16T15:42:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T15:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=346"},"modified":"2026-07-16T15:42:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T15:42:50","slug":"rubio-launches-global-effort-to-target-left-wing-extremists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=346","title":{"rendered":"Rubio launches global effort to target left-wing extremists"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will host delegations from 65 countries Thursday for a summit on what the Trump administration describes as a resurgence of far-left political terrorism. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller are expected to attend.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFar-left political terrorism is a real and transnational threat that has existed for decades but is now experiencing a resurgence,\u201d Rubio is expected to say in his opening remarks, according to prepared excerpts obtained by MS NOW. \u201cLeft-wing extremists operate across borders, maintaining the capability to train, recruit, establish digital infrastructure, fundraise and strike across different countries. The transnational nature of the threat requires an international response.\u201d<\/p>\n

Civil liberties groups in the U.S. say they fear that Rubio\u2019s gathering \u2014 informally called the \u201cAntifa summit\u201d \u2014 is part of the Trump administration\u2019s broader effort to target protesters they view as left-wing extremists.<\/p>\n

Daniel Byman, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who recently authored a study on political violence from the left and right, said the administration\u2019s focus on violence from the left appeared lopsided.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have potential violence from a range of sources, and the extreme right is one of them,\u201d Byman said.\u00a0 \u201cAnd government should be focused on that just as they\u2019re focused on other concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

A senior State Department official said the event signals the issue\u2019s importance to the United States and that the effort targets violent criminal acts, not peaceful protests or demonstrations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many of our partners and allies, this has been a blind spot, so there are gaps here, and so this is the perfect opportunity for us to address gaps,\u201d the official said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The State Department said last week that \u201coverwhelming interest\u201dhad led it to invite additional countries that are \u201cworking to combat the growing international threat of far-left violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed as to why the U.S. is not addressing the threats of both left-wing and right-wing extremism, the official said allies and partners have told U.S. officials that far-left political violence is \u201ca lot more sophisticated\u201d and \u201cmore difficult\u201d to counter than far-right violence, which has long been a focus of counterterrorism work.<\/p>\n

The summit follows Trump\u2019s counterterrorism strategy, released in May, which listed \u201cviolent left-wing extremists, including anarchists and anti-fascists,\u201d as one of three major categories of terror groups America faces. The strategy excluded any mention of far-right violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur counterterrorism powers will not be used to target our fellow Americans who simply disagree with us,\u201d . \u201cWe will not permit the weaponization of America\u2019s unparalleled [counterterrorism] capabilities for partisan purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sebastian Gorka, the Trump administration\u2019s senior director for counterterrorism, said in the national counterterrorism strategy that Antifa was one of the groups that would be targeted. Antifa, shorthand for anti-fascist, is not a formal organization but a political movement whose adherents oppose authoritarianism, fascism, neo-Nazism and white supremacy.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn addition to cartels and Islamist terror groups, our national CT activities will also prioritize the rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist,\u201d the strategy states. \u201cWe will use all the tools constitutionally available to us to map them at home, identify their membership, map their ties to international organizations like Antifa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump signed an executive order in September designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, calling it \u201ca militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow\u201d of the government and law enforcement while using \u201cillegal means to organize and execute a campaign of terrorism nationwide to accomplish these goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a White House event in October, Miller said it would be a \u201cvalid step\u201d to treat Antifa as a foreign terrorist organization.<\/p>\n

In an interview last month, Gorka said Antifa was not being singled out, and that the designation was part of a broader effort against any group that uses violence for ideological reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood counterterrorism is very simply a function of using all the constitutional powers we have to identify those who are going to use violence against their fellow citizens for ideological purposes,\u201d Gorka told MS NOW, adding, \u201cbe it religious, such as jihadi groups, or be it secular political, such as Antifa or anarchist groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gorka argued that the U.S. is seeing a resurgence in the left-wing violence of the 1970s, when groups such as the Weather Underground carried out bombings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we witnessed sadly 50 years ago is now back in new forms, whether it\u2019s Antifa, whether it\u2019s radical transgenderism, whether it\u2019s anarchist groups,\u201d Gorka said. \u201cLike Mark Twain said, your history doesn\u2019t repeat itself, but it definitely rhymes, and now the rhyme, the rhythm is left-wing violence is in the ascendance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Byman agreed that left-wing attacks have risen, but said left-leaning groups are not as large or organized as they were in the 1960s and 1970s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndividuals exist, and you have small groups, people who know each other, but you don\u2019t have these big nationwide organizations,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have the Weather Underground.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Researchers have cautioned against a one-sided focus. A study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies found that 2025 was the first time in more than three decades in which left-wing terrorist attacks outnumbered far-right ones \u2014 but noted that the increase came off a very low base and \u201cremains much lower than historical levels of violence carried out by right-wing and jihadist attackers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRight-wing terrorism could come roaring back, especially if in 2028 there are complaints of a \u2018stolen election\u2019 or similar incendiary claims,\u201d the study warned, stressing the importance of providing resources to combat terror threats across the political spectrum. \u201cDeveloping the programs and expertise to suppress different forms of terrorism takes years, and ignoring a long-term threat to go after a more immediate one could be deadly over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Far-right appeals court hands Trump a win in his segregation-enabling crusade<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An international \u201cAntifa summit\u201d at the State Department is raising concerns that President Donald Trump is expanding a crackdown on left-wing groups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\nRubio launches global effort to target left-wing extremists - Long Distance Movers USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=346\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rubio launches global effort to target left-wing extremists - 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