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Rubio’s global crackdown push
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged countries to collaborate on a global crackdown on far-left extremism at a ministerial meeting at the State Department headquarters in Washington, where the Trump administration hosted representatives from more than 60 countries.
Rubio framed the effort as a response to what he called a growing threat of left-wing terrorism and said the initiative was aimed at sharing intelligence to counter the "transnational" issue of far-left extremism.
The meeting, which Reuters said was held in Washington on Thursday, was also tied to the Trump administration’s stated priority of confronting left-wing groups, particularly Antifa, which the administration has designated as a domestic terrorist group.
In the same session, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller characterized leftists as "fundamentally motivated by envy, by hatred, by jealousy," as the State Department announced visa restrictions targeting members of what it labels as "Far-Left Terrorist and other aligned groups".
Critics call it partisan
Democrats questioned Rubio’s focus on left-wing groups, with eleven Democratic lawmakers writing to Rubio on Wednesday and warning that the approach might target lawful protests and political opponents.
The lawmakers urged the Department to return to an "apolitical" counterterrorism mission, saying in a letter obtained by Reuters that it should not be "rubberstamping the political priorities of extremists within the Administration".
CNN en Español reported that Rubio and Stephen Miller tried to paint a “terror de extrema izquierda” threat picture for the United States while urging diplomats to “defender” their civilisations, and it quoted Miller saying the “cáncer mortal de la civilización” is what left-wing terrorism becomes if it is allowed to proceed.
In the same CNN en Español account, Ian Moss, an exsubcoordinador de contraterrorismo del Departamento de Estado during the Gobierno de Biden, said that the reality and the data indicate that left-wing extremism does not match the level of threat posed by far-right or jihadist violence.
Designations, visas, and funding
Beyond rhetoric, the Trump administration tied the meeting to concrete policy steps, including visa restrictions targeting members of what the State Department labels as "Far-Left Terrorist and other aligned groups" and a broader push to trace and disrupt funding.
Reuters reported that the U.S. Treasury is expanding probes into the use of charitable and nonprofit structures to hide foreign influence and allow violence, and that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the conference on Thursday that the department was "ampliando sus esfuerzos" to identify organizations that abuse such structures.
The BBC also said the administration has already designated four European groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations: Antifa Ost (based in Germany), the Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front (Italy), Armed Proletarian Justice (Greece) and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense (Greek).
In parallel, the Reuters account described how the administration’s counterterrorism posture is being contested by Democrats who argued the focus on far-left groups could divert resources from other extremist threats, while the State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott told Fox News that countries were not recoiling and that "we’ve actually had countries proactively reach out to us".
