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Rubio Puts Political Terrorism on Notice

The “distinctive and unique evil” of far-left violence can be ignored no longer.

Michele White
Michele White
Jul 17, 2026
Rubio Puts Political Terrorism on Notice

Secretary of State Marco Rubio (Photo by Finn Gomez/Getty Images)

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4 Questions

The story, in brief

1What visa restrictions did Marco Rubio announce at his terrorism summit?

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new visa restrictions barring far-left terrorists and other aligned groups from entering the United States. He also posted that foreigners who finance, incite, or aid and abet far-left terrorists are enemies of civilization and are not welcome in the country.

2Which Mexican cartels did Marco Rubio designate as terrorist organizations?

Rubio designated two additional Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists. The two groups named were the Juárez Cartel and Los Viagras. The designations were announced alongside the new visa restrictions.

3Why did Marco Rubio call for a coalition against far-left political terrorism?

Rubio said counterterrorism doctrine has a blind spot for extremist political violence coming from the left. He argued that ideological prejudice has led to different treatment for Marxist revolutionaries and that the 2020 George Floyd riots, along with refusals to prosecute violent offenders, showed left-wing political violence being treated as a protected class.

4How did Scott Bessent say left-wing political terrorism affected him and what comes next?

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he was the subject of an assassination attempt by a left-wing activist in February 2024, two hours into his job. He said anyone claiming the threat is fictional should attend the sentencing in August. Bessent also called for international cooperation and warned that the global financial system must not become a sanctuary for those seeking to subvert it.

Getting into the US is going to be harder for far-left terrorists and the members of Mexican drug cartels. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new visa restrictions during a summit he hosted for diplomats from more than 65 countries across the Western Hemisphere, Europe, and Asia. During the Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism, Rubio pointed to the international network – and roots – of far-left political violence in his call to build an international coalition to fight what he dubbed a “distinctive and unique evil.”

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Rubio began by reminding the group that the first responsibility of any government is “the protection of its people” and “the protection of its country.” The secretary recounted the terrorist acts from radical Islamist extremists over the last 25 years and the United States’ efforts to rebuild “the entire architecture of Western counterterrorism … from the studs around” one traumatic event: September 11, 2001. Rubio touted America’s successes in assembling a global anti-terrorism coalition, destroying the ISIS caliphate, and killing Islamist militant leaders.

Political Terrorism Blind Spot

But then he called out the blind spot of the counterterrorism doctrine for extremist political violence coming from the left and the differential treatment of Neo-Nazi groups and so-called Marxist revolutionaries. This “ideological prejudice,” Rubio explained, has become so embedded in discourse and beliefs that it has been accepted as an “apolitical fact.” The news coverage of the George Floyd riots in the summer of 2020 and the refusal by some city governments to prosecute violent rioters were evidence of what he called the protected class of left-wing political violence.

“It has always been driven by a hatred above all else,” said Rubio, “a hatred for civilization itself. It is a revolt of the worst against the best, a revolt of the weak and the cowardly against the strong and the good.” He continued:

“It is perpetrated by those who cannot build, who cannot create, who cannot achieve great things, and take their revenge upon the world for their own inadequacy by seeking to destroy those who can. This is what radical leftism is.

“It is a poisonous resentment cloaked in the language of equality and justice and liberation, an overwhelming need to tear down what greater men have built, to wreck what is beautiful and what is right on behalf of people who are only filled with ugliness and have nothing else to offer the world.”

Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller spoke and discussed the end goal of left-wing political terrorism:

“One of the hallmarks of left-wing violence and terrorism is its completely pretextual and disingenuous appeal to civil liberties in an effort to shield its own violence. This is the tactic that the left always uses to try to protect itself from facing criminal punishment. It is essential that we are wise enough and strong enough to understand that these appeals must fall on deaf ears. When the leftist, who does not believe in freedom, who does not believe in civil rights, who does not believe in any ordered notion of justice, protests that we are violating his rights, understand that he is lying to try to persuade people who are not closely following the political scene that some injustice has been perpetrated against him.”

Attempted Assassination

US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent went “off-script” to remind both the officials in attendance and the media that he, like President Donald Trump, was the subject of an assassination attempt by a left-wing activist in February of 2024, just two hours into his job. “So, any of you who want to report that this is a fiction and does not exist, be there for the sentencing this August,” Bessent said.

He reminded the group of the Treasury’s role in disrupting the financing of terrorist organizations in the wake of September 11 – becoming the first finance ministry in the world to dedicate an office toward that end. He joined Rubio and Miller in a call for international cooperation.

“The global financial system is one of the great achievements of the modern world, and we never must allow it to become a sanctuary for those who seek to subvert it,” Bessent warned. “So, on behalf of the United States Treasury, let there be no uncertainty about the work before us and the resolve with which we will undertake it.”

New Visa Restrictions

Rubio on Thursday designated two additional Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations: the Juárez Cartel and Los Viagras. The State Department also announced new visa restrictions barring far-left terrorists and other aligned groups from entering the US. Rubio posted on X: “Foreigners who finance, incite, or aid and abet Far-Left Terrorists are enemies of our civilization. They are not welcome in the United States.”

Secretary Rubio’s summit comes one day after the Democratic Socialists of America launched a new platform and follows a wave of primary wins by far-left candidates, including some backed by the DSA in New York and Colorado.

As Liberty Nation News’ Graham Noble wrote, “the DSA program doesn’t differ in any way from communist manifestos,” something that Rubio, whose family emigrated to the US as Cuba was becoming a Marxist state, knows well. As the secretary put it:

“The world it envisions for all of us is small, flat, grey, leveled of all exception, drained of all that is good and noble in the human soul. The world it envisions is a world without courage, a world without creativity or ambition, a world without heroes or glory or great causes to strive towards, without – a world without miracles, without myths, without men who rise above the rest to do incredible and extraordinary things. And the world communism envisions is a world without God.” 

What a bleak world that would be.

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About the Author

Michele is an award-winning journalist. She has reported and anchored on local television stations and written for newspapers and magazines for 2 decades. But, she has been asking questions since she was a child. Michele credits her passion for liberty, love for the Constitution, and grammar fanaticism to her Boston roots.
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