Rubio Hosts 70-Plus Nations for Summit on Far-Left Terrorism, Launches Separate Campaign Against ICC

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to host ministers from more than 70 countries in Washington on Thursday, July 16, for a summit built around a single premise: far-left terrorism has been ignored for too long, and that ends now.

The State Department originally planned to invite about 60 nations. It expanded the guest list after what officials described as "overwhelming interest," according to Newsmax, ultimately pulling in delegations from Europe, Latin America, Asia, India and Israel.

A briefing document obtained by ABC News lays out the administration's case bluntly: "For too long this threat has remained a blind spot in the international community's counterterrorism focus, underestimated and under-resourced, despite the danger it poses." State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott put it more plainly on X, writing that the Trump administration is "addressing gaps in our counterterrorism strategy that have been largely ignored by previous administrations."

The target is antifa, the decentralized far-left movement the administration has formally designated a domestic terrorist organization. The briefing document, per ABC News, describes a "clear trend" of "globally networked, politically-motivated terrorists — particularly far-left terrorists" turning to "organized, deadly violence to advance their political objectives." The summit is meant to build intelligence-sharing and law enforcement cooperation across borders, laying groundwork the State Department calls "coordinated action."

Concern from Officials and Allies

According to Anadolu Ajansı, citing reporting from The Washington Post, the meeting has drawn concern from some U.S. career officials, European allies and independent analysts. They do not deny that left-wing violence exists, but they question how the authorities generated here might be used.

Counterterrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka has reportedly discussed using foreign terrorist designations tied to antifa to justify investigations of Americans connected to the movement. One counterterrorism official told the Post that a foreign terrorist connection "can unlock certain investigative tools," including surveillance. Gorka declined to comment on the record.

Once a legal tool exists to surveil people under a terrorism label, that tool doesn't disappear when the administration changes. One official raised the concern directly: "The idea is you're setting a precedent for a future Gavin Newsom administration to turn these authorities on conservatives." Some officials in the Justice Department and White House Counsel's Office reportedly shared enough unease that they skipped planning discussions ahead of the summit.

A White House official pushed back on the idea that concern is widespread, arguing Democrats have misused national security powers before and pointing to the administration's own counterterrorism strategy as justification.

Whether left-wing political violence has increased is a factual question. Whether new investigative powers get weaponized against political opponents down the road is a prediction about future government behavior. A 2025 analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, cited by Newsmax, found that left-wing violence in the U.S. has risen over the past decade but "remains much lower than historical levels of violence carried out by right-wing and jihadist attackers." The same analysis warned that right-wing terrorism "could come roaring back, especially if in 2028 there are complaints of a stolen election or similar incendiary claims." The threat is real and rising, but it is not the only threat, and the tools built to fight it do not come with a partisan expiration date.

Rubio's Campaign Against the International Criminal Court

While the terrorism summit is set to dominate Thursday's headlines, Rubio has also opened a parallel campaign against the International Criminal Court, announced in a State Department statement on July 13.

The goal, per the department, is to "dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court to U.S. sovereignty." Tools under consideration include revoking visas and imposing travel bans on ICC personnel, sanctioning the court and affiliated organizations, and pressuring allied nations that rely on U.S. military and security support to reject the court's authority outright. A State Department official told reporters that "nations that refuse to reject the ICC's false authority while relying on U.S. assistance are likely to come under increased scrutiny."

The U.S. has never joined the ICC, established in 2002 to prosecute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. But the court claims jurisdiction over nationals of non-member states when crimes occur on the territory of a member state, which is exactly the authority Rubio calls illegitimate. In a video message, Rubio said the ICC and "its friends are waging a war against our country, not with bullets and missiles, but with statutes, compacts, and the force of so-called international law." He warned that Border Patrol agents, Marines and elected officials could face prosecution "for the so-called 'crime' of defending their own country."

ICC spokesperson Oriane Maillet said the court would not comment on the matter at this stage.

Every American president since the ICC's founding has rejected its jurisdiction over U.S. citizens, a position with genuine bipartisan roots. What is new is the scale of the pressure campaign: sanctions, visa bans and leverage over allies who depend on U.S. security guarantees. Whether that campaign successfully shrinks the ICC's reach, or instead isolates Washington from allies still inside the court, is the open question heading into the coming months.