WASHINGTON--U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told officials from more than 60 countries on Thursday that the United States would seek to refocus international counterterrorism efforts on what he called "far-left terror", arguing that left-wing violence had long been overlooked.
The conference in Washington has sparked Democratic concerns that the Trump administration is politicizing counterterrorism efforts and diverting resources from other extremist threats.
In a speech, Rubio said the Islamic militancy threat was "severely diminished" due to coordinated international efforts but that rising left-wing violence was a blind spot. "We can and we must identify and map this threat and rebuild our counterterrorism architecture to defeat it," Rubio said, citing a transnational threat from groups who hate the West and target its politicians and infrastructure.
The conference marks the Trump administration's most significant effort yet to internationalize a counterterrorism focus that critics say is not supported by data. President Donald Trump has made countering left-wing groups a priority. Trump singled out the antifa movement on the campaign trail in 2024, and vowed to take action against left-wing groups he accuses of fomenting violence after the killing of conservative activist and Trump ally Charlie Kirk last year.
The Trump administration convened a law enforcement workshop in May to discuss the threat of far-left groups and would co-host a second workshop with Germany, Rubio said.
Latvia's Foreign Minister Baiba Braze told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference that the forum also allowed countries like hers to discuss threats from Russia-backed groups and new trends in technology use by militants of all stripes. "What is new is that it's very much a fluid extremist environment where technology enables various actors to radicalize different groups. Sometimes it's leftist ideology, sometimes it's very right-wing ideology," Braze said.
Since November, Washington has designated four European groups — Antifa Ost, the Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front, Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense — as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, offering rewards of up to $10 million for information on their financing. Rubio said there would be more designations soon.
Rubio announced a new visa restriction policy that would target members of groups "who have supported or incited" violence or economic sabotage, but did not say whether any visa bans had been issued under the policy.
The U.S. Treasury is expanding probes into the use of charitable and nonprofit structures to hide foreign influence and allow violence, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the conference on Thursday.
