Left-wing terror attacks are on track to reach a record high this year — as Democrats have been accused of ramping up their harmful rhetoric in their opposition to the Trump administration, a disturbing new study has found.
Violent plots planned or perpetrated by the far left in the US, as a percentage of all terrorist attacks and plots, hit a high in the first half of 2025, and are on pace to reach a three-decade high by the end of the year, according to a study from the Center for Strategic & International Studies.
Through July 4, 2025 — thus excluding the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the attack on the Dallas ICE facility — there were five left-wing attacks or plots, the study found.
This is more than eight times higher than the average of 0.6 left-wing incidents annually from 1995 to 2000.
The current record — set in 2022 and 2020 — was eight, according to CSIS data.
CSIS researchers compiled and analyzed a dataset of 750 terrorist attacks and plots in the United States between January 1, 1994, and July 4, 2025.
For the first time in 30 years, terrorist attacks from the far left are outpacing attacks from the extreme right, the analysis also shows.
Researchers noted that the increase in left-wing violence since President Trump first took office in 2016 has been largely motivated by anti-government extremism or partisan extremism.
Since then, “all left-wing attacks through July 4, 2025, appeared to be motivated by one of these ideologies,” the study found, noting that Kirk’s fatal shooting appears to fit the pattern.
Kirk’s alleged killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, scrawled “Hey fascist, catch this” on a shell casing before shooting him dead on Sept. 10, law enforcement officials said.
The CSIS study stated the rise in left-wing violence this year can be explained “as opposition to the Trump administration fuels attacks against both its political leadership and the state institutions that carry out its agenda.”
The study notes immigration has also emerged as a major issue this year, highlighted by this week’s attack at an ICE detention center in Dallas — which Trump blamed on the rhetoric from “radical left Democrats.”
While political “leaders are not responsible for extremists in their midst,” the authors wrote, “they are responsible for how they behave towards extremism.”
They called for both sides to condemn violence from their side and call for calm when it involves the other.
“The celebrations among some on the left of Luigi Mangione is a failure to undermine support for left-wing violence,” the study said.
Democrats have come under fire for calling those in this Republican administration “Nazis” or “fascists” — particularly in regard to its massive deportation effort.
After alleged anti-ICE sniper Joshua Jahn shot three detainees before taking his own life in Dallas on Wednesday, the FBI discovered a hand-written notes found at Jahn’s residence that accused ICE agents of “human trafficking.”
That same language was used by Democratic Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost, who accused ICE of “kidnapping people” and “human trafficking,” in June.
In July, the White House urged Dems to “tone down” their critiques of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but many have continued.
Just this week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and slammed ICE as a “private domestic army” being used to bolster the Trump admin’s “authoritarian tendencies.”
Minnesota Gov. and former Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has referred to the agency as a “modern-day Gestapo.”
Far-left “Squad” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) earlier this month described Trump’s Washington, DC, crime crackdown as a “fascist takeover.”
And even before losing the 2024 election, former Vice President Kamala Harris agreed that Trump was a “fascist” when she was asked on the campaign trail.
Meanwhile, the study’s authors said, one possible explanation for the decline in right-wing terrorism this year is that “some extremists do not feel the need to act violently if their concerns are being addressed” since Trump took office.
Since 1995, there have been more right-wing than left-wing terrorism plots and attacks in the US every year, with at least 30 incidents reported in 1995 — the year of the Oklahoma City bombing — as well as 2023, 2020 and 2017.
But just one has been reported in 2025.
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