Secretary of State Marco Rubio is bringing senior officials from more than 60 nations to Washington next week for a high-level conference aimed at strengthening international cooperation against what the Trump administration says is an escalating wave of transnational far-left terrorism.
The gathering, scheduled for July 16 at the State Department, will include ministers and senior representatives from Europe, Latin America, and Asia. According to a planning document obtained by The Washington Post, participants will focus on improving intelligence-sharing and law enforcement coordination to combat what U.S. officials describe as a renewed surge in politically driven violence carried out by far-left extremist organizations.
The planning paper states that the meeting will address “far-left terrorists” who are “increasingly turning to organized, deadly violence to advance their political objectives.”
The initiative has drawn skepticism from a number of current and former American officials, foreign diplomats, and terrorism specialists, many of whom argue that left-wing extremist organizations do not currently present the same level of international danger as other terrorist threats.
Some officials within the administration have also voiced concern that broadening counterterrorism powers in this area could establish legal precedents that might later be used against other political groups.
“The idea is you’re setting a precedent for a future Gavin Newsom administration to turn these authorities on conservatives,” one current administration official told the Post.
The White House rejected that criticism, saying such concerns did “not represent the prevailing feeling” and pointing instead to the administration’s national counterterrorism strategy released in May, which states: “We will not permit the weaponization of America’s unparalleled CT capabilities for partisan purposes.”
The strategy further emphasizes, “Our counterterrorism powers will not be used to target our fellow Americans who simply disagree with us.”
White House counterterrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka has explored whether organizations linked to antifa could qualify for designation as foreign terrorist groups, a move that officials say could broaden investigative tools available to law enforcement under certain circumstances.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly condemned antifa and signed an executive order last year identifying it as a “domestic terrorist organization,” although legal scholars have noted that such a designation does not carry formal legal standing under existing federal law.
Administration officials have also highlighted recent criminal cases involving anti-fascist activists as evidence supporting their concerns.
Last month, multiple defendants were handed lengthy prison terms for their involvement in a violent demonstration outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas, where a police officer was shot during the unrest.
Federal prosecutors characterized those charged as members of an “antifa cell,” while defense lawyers maintained that the prosecution was politically motivated.
The State Department extended invitations to nearly every European country, along with several nations in Latin America and key Asian partners, including India, Indonesia, and Singapore.
According to The Washington Post, some foreign governments have indicated they are unlikely to dispatch cabinet-level officials, citing scheduling issues or disagreement with the administration’s assessment of the threat posed by far-left extremist movements.
Several terrorism experts also questioned whether the administration’s priorities accurately reflect today’s global security landscape.
“We have to be objective about identifying threats, not politically selective,” said Bruce Hoffman, a senior fellow for counterterrorism at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Colin P. Clarke, executive director of the Soufan Center, offered a similar assessment, saying, “If I were to rack and stack priorities, left-wing terrorists wouldn’t be in my top three.”