Study Confirms Leftist Violence Surge Since 2016 Raises National Security Concerns

No, It’s Not Your Imagination—Study Shows Leftist Violence Shoots to Historic Highs

We have watched a string of violent episodes that refuse to be shrugged off as random. From the tragic assassination of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk to two attempts on Donald Trump’s life in 2024, the pattern screams a political dimension. These events are not isolated anomalies; they are symptoms of a problem with one side increasingly willing to use violence.

Attacks on ICE facilities, mobs targeting private individuals, and the disturbing public cheers for accused killers like Luigi Mangione make the danger obvious. The scenes have escalated from street brawls to attempted murder and assassination, and that should alarm every American regardless of persuasion. Pretending this is symmetrical partisan breakdown is a comfort the country cannot afford.

Some in the pundit class insist on a both-sides equivalence, but a sober look at the data pushes back on that claim. A new report from a D.C. center lays out trends that contradict the comfortable narration of moral parity between left and right. You can either accept the evidence or keep repeating the same talking points.

Our analysis of terrorism trends in the United States shows that, indeed, left-wing violence has risen in the last 10 years, particularly since President Donald Trump’s rise to political prominence in 2016, although it has risen from very low levels and remains much lower than historical levels of violence carried out by right-wing and jihadist attackers.

The report’s language acknowledges context, but the political instincts of many institutions still lean left, and that shapes perception. The center that produced this work is staffed by veterans of both parties and the national security world, and yet readers will find finger-pointing and excuses in some coverage. Call it bias or denial, but the result is the same: the public is being steered away from inconvenient conclusions.

There is an instinct in some quarters to discredit bad news by attacking the messenger, and that happens to the study here as well. Critics will note personnel with past ties to Democratic administrations and whisper questions about motive. Fine — politics colors everything — but motive does not erase facts.

They may not have liked what they found, but the data did not disappear. The report highlights a clear surge that can no longer be waved away with moral equivalence or guilt-by-association. A growing left-wing violent fringe has been energized at a time when the country is bitterly divided.

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. The left-wing movement as a whole has not returned to its violent heights of the 1960s and 1970s, but the number of terrorist incidents involving left-wing extremists so far this year puts 2025 on pace to be the left’s most violent year in more than three decades.

One of the most inconvenient lines in the report notes a simultaneous decline in right-wing attacks in 2025. That drop is real, it is stark, and it undermines the lazy media narrative that both sides are equally violent right now. The result is a simple truth: left-wing attacks have been rising while right-wing attacks have, at least for now, fallen.

Indeed, the increase in left-wing attacks is particularly noticeable because attacks from right-wing perpetrators have sharply declined in 2025. This decline is striking, and explanations are speculative.

Scenes of organized left-wing mobs intimidating opponents, vandalizing property, or celebrating violence have become disturbingly routine. These are not homegrown skirmishes between equals; they are targeted campaigns of harassment and worse that carry a political purpose. Americans who care about safety and the rule of law should care about who is doing the violence regardless of the slogans they shout.

To be clear, there are violent actors on the right too, and extremists of every stripe deserve prosecution and public condemnation. But honesty in assessing trends matters because policy and law enforcement responses should match the threat. Mislabeling or minimizing a growing left-wing campaign of violence invites further bloodshed.

The media and political class have a responsibility to report facts without partisan shielding, yet too often they rationalize or deflect when the violence comes from the left. That reflex not only misinforms the public but empowers bad actors who count on being excused. Call it political convenience or moral cowardice — the effect is the same: less accountability.

What should voters and officials do? First, acknowledge the trend publicly and honestly, even when it hurts your preferred narratives. Second, insist that law enforcement pursue threats wherever they originate and that prosecutors treat political violence as criminality, not an ideological statement. Third, voters must demand leaders who will call out violence on all sides and refuse to normalize political terror.

This is not a call to hysteria but to civic clarity: we must name the problem to fix it. Political violence corrodes institutions and endangers everyday life, and pretending it is evenly distributed when it is not is a dangerous convenience. Americans deserve truthful reporting and firm responses, not partisan protection rackets.