Marco Rubio is taking "far-left terror" crusade global

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Marco Rubio is taking “far-left terror” crusade global
Often seen as the administration's sole adult, the secretary's actions are an alarming sign for the post-Trump GOP

By Heather Digby Parton
Columnist
Published July 12, 2026 9:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) In May, the Trump administration released a 16-page strategy memo outlining what it called the most significant terrorist threats facing the nation. Authored by the recently appointed senior director for counterterrorism, Sebastian Gorka, it drew a distinction between three categories: Narco-terrorism, Islamic terrorism and left-wing terrorism. Since Gorka himself has ties to a far-right group in Hungary, perhaps it was to be expected that the document neglected to mention the right-wing violence that has plagued the United States for the last decade or more.

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It’s not surprising that the report, if you want to call it that, would name narco-terrorists and Islamic terrorism. Those are perennial threats named in reports by both Democratic and Republican administrations. But the focus on left-wing terrorism is new. And now the Trump administration, led by Secretary of State — and likely 2028 presidential candidate — Marco Rubio is leading the charge to take the far-left terror crusade global.

Left-wing terrorism hasn’t been a focus until now for good reason. As TIME reported in September, “In the last five years, 81 people have been killed by political violence in the United States. Right-wing terrorists account for over half of those murders, some 54%, according to research by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. Islamists account for 21%, and left-wingers for 22%.” Going back to 1975, excluding the 9/11 attacks, right-wing terrorism has accounted for 63% of deaths from political violence, while only 10% came from the left.

Colin Clark, the director of the Soufan Center, a nonprofit that focuses on foreign policy and terrorism, pointed out in an interview with PBS that the term “narco-terrorism” is a misnomer. Cartels and drug gangs are motivated by profits, not ideology, which is what defines the term. Not that the groups aren’t a threat, but they require a different approach — although the report’s emphasis on “kinetic” (violent) response is currently being enacted in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, where the military is wantonly murdering people in small boats without evidence. ..................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/07/12/marco-rubio-is-taking-far-left-terror-crusade-global/