Overview

• CSIS tallied five left-wing attacks and plots versus one on the violent far right through July 4, marking the first such count in more than three decades.
• Authors say left-wing activity has increased from very low levels since 2016, while right-wing incidents dropped sharply in early 2025.
• The dataset covers 750 cases since 1994 under a specific terrorism definition and excludes events with unclear ideology or post–July 4 incidents such as the Charlie Kirk assassination.
• In the past decade, right-wing attacks caused far more deaths than left-wing violence—112 versus 13—underscoring the enduring lethality gap.
• The report posits a plausible but unproven link between the right-wing decline and Trump-era policies as the administration moves to target alleged left-wing networks.