The Trump administration released a new counterterrorism strategy on Wednesday that identified left-wing anarchist groups like antifa as one of the biggest threats in the U.S., along with Islamist extremist groups, Iran and narcotraffickers.
It is the first counterterrorism strategy to be released during President Donald Trump’s second term.
“In addition to cartels and Islamist terror groups, our national [counterterrorism] activities will also prioritize the rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist,” wrote Sebastian Gorka, the administration senior director for counterterrorism.
In a departure from the Biden administration, the 16-page counter-terrorism strategy identifies two new groups as major threats to the U.S.: “Narcoterrorists and Transnational Gangs” and “Violent Left-Wing Extremists, including Anarchists and Anti-Fascists.”
A study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) released last September after the killing of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk found that left-wing terrorist attacks outnumbered right-wing terrorist attacks in the U.S. for the first time in three decades. While the report found that right-wing attacks declined sharply last year, it also noted that right-wing attacks tended to be more deadly.
“So far, 2025 marks the first time in more than 30 years that left-wing terrorist attacks outnumber those from the violent far right,” said the report. “Despite its decline this year, right-wing terrorism could easily return to previous high levels.”
The report went on to note: “Many left-wing attackers (though not all) have demonstrated limited skill in carrying out violence, and the movement is disorganized, with little formal coordination.”
In the call to reporters, Gorka vowed to investigate drug cartels, Islamic terrorists and left-wing groups, specifically citing the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“Whether it is the cartels, the jihadists or violent left-wing extremists like Antifa and like the transgender killers, the non-binary, the left-wing radicals who killed my friend, Charlie Kirk, we will take them on, head-on,” Gorka said.
The counterterrorism strategy published Wednesday also noted that “Legacy Islamist Terrorists” and “weapons of mass destruction” remain a threat to the U.S. In a call with reporters, Gorka called Iran the world’s “greatest state sponsor of terrorism” and criticized opponents of the Trump administration’s war with Iran, calling them “testicularly challenged.” He also suggested that opponents of the war have “low-T,” or low testosterone.
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Democrats have assailed Trump for pardoning more than 1,500 people convicted of or charged in connection with the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. And they have accused Trump and Gorka of exaggerating left-wing violence, particularly antifa, which experts say is not an organized movement.
Democrats have also warned that the Trump administration could weaponize counter-terrorism agencies, as they have the Justice Department, to punish Trump’s political enemies. Gorka, who has accused the Biden administration of using the Justice Department to punish Trump supporters, said that would not happen.
“Our counterterrorism powers will not be used to target our fellow Americans who simply disagree with us,” he wrote in the new strategy report. “We will not permit the weaponization of America’s unparalleled [counterterrorism] capabilities for partisan purposes and in contravention of every American’s God-given rights.”
CSIS’s September report called for political leaders and government officials to focus on curbing violence on both sides of the political spectrum.
“It is important to resource counterterrorism efforts against both right- and left-wing terrorism and work with communities to gain their support against extremists,” the CSIS report said. “Leaders across the political spectrum must condemn violent extremism of all kinds, denying it legitimacy and reducing its appeal.”
Despite highlighting “left-wing extremists,” Gorka told reporters Wednesday he condemned any use of violence to achieve political goals from any individual or group — left or right.
“This is a threat we will take very seriously, whether you are right wing inspired or left wing inspired,” Gorka said. “The point at which you advocate for violence or use violence yourself for political purposes means you are actually undertaking terrorism, and we will not permit that to happen in the United States.”
David Rohde is a senior national security reporter for MS NOW. A two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, he previously worked for NBC News, the New Yorker, Reuters, the New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor.