[L]eft-wing violence has risen in the last 10 years, particularly since President Donald Trump’s rise to political prominence in 2016…. More contentious politics in the United States and the expansion of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement appear to have reenergized violent left-wing extremists.
Mind you, the increase in left-wing violence is from “very low levels and remains much lower than historical levels of violence carried out by right-wing and jihadist attackers.” (The latter represent a third category.) Left-wing killers have a long way to go before they reach the level of sustained political violence achieved by white supremacists, neo-Nazis, Jew-haters, Islamaphobes, homophobes, and many more.
Just to be clear: I abhor all violence, political or otherwise, left and right. Vandalism, too. (Before you ask: Yes, I said this when the George Floyd protests turned into riots.) That’s a moral judgment. In addition, I make the political judgment that political violence (and vandalism) is self-destructive, especially when committed by the left. (The right doesn’t tend to pay as high a price for breaking things and hurting people.)
I therefore take no joy in reporting that Trump’s extremist rhetoric and increasingly authoritarian policies have, according to CSIS, made 2025 “the first time in more than 30 years that left-wing attacks outnumber those from the far right.” Granted, left-wing political violence remains less lethal. Right-wing nuts killed 112 people between 2016 and the middle of 2025; the body count for left-wing nuts is a paltry 13. I don’t see that gap closing, given the left-of-center’s dislike of assault weapons. And I wouldn’t count on the left remaining more violent than the right into 2026, given the right’s historic advantage going back at least to the 1940s. It isn’t really, as the cliché goes, who the left is.
