Following the September assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, United States President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have formed their political agenda by blaming the left for political violence.
“Political violence, it’s only a statistical undeniable fact that it’s an even bigger drawback on the left,” Vance stated whereas guest-hosting The Charlie Kirk Present podcast on October 15 within the aftermath of Kirk’s killing. A couple of minute later, he added, “Proper now that violent impulse is an even bigger drawback on the left than the best.”
A Vance spokesperson didn’t reply our questions. When referring to left-wing violence, a White Home spokesperson just lately pointed to a September 28 Axios article a few research by the Heart for Strategic and Worldwide Research (CSIS), a nonprofit coverage analysis organisation.
Democrats, calling your political opponents Nazis has penalties.
Research: Left-wing terrorism climbs to 30-year excessivehttps://t.co/30NvIj9nzC
— Abigail Jackson (@ATJackson47) September 28, 2025
The research discovered that “2025 marks the primary time in additional than 30 years that left-wing terrorist assaults outnumber these from the violent far proper”. The research additionally confirmed that for the 30 years earlier than 2025, right-wing assaults had outpaced left-wing violence.
“The rise in left-wing assaults deserves elevated consideration, however the fall in right-wing assaults might be short-term, and it too requires a authorities response,” the authors wrote within the research.
Vance’s assertion oversimplified political violence and drew from a part of one research of a six-month interval. The federal authorities has no single, official definition of “political violence”, and ascribing ideologies such because the left wing and the best wing is typically difficult. There is no such thing as a agreed upon variety of left- or right-wing politically violent assaults.
Analysis earlier than 2025 largely factors to increased ranges of right-wing violence over longer durations of time.
Trump has used the administration’s statements about rising left-wing violence to label antifa as a home “terrorist menace”, and administration officers additionally stated they are going to examine what they name left-wing teams that fund violence.
Though political violence is a small subset of violent crime within the US, it “has a disproportionate influence as a result of even uncommon incidents can amplify concern, affect coverage and deepen societal polarisation”, sociology professors on the College of Dayton, Arthur Jipson and Paul J Becker, wrote in September after Kirk’s assassination.
In an e-mail interview with PolitiFact, Becker stated the report in query “signifies there MAY be a shift occurring from the Proper being extra violent however 5 vs 1 incidents in 6 months isn’t sufficient to utterly erase years of knowledge and reviews from a number of sources displaying the other or to dictate new insurance policies”.
Research examined three many years of political violence
The CSIS, a nationwide safety and defence suppose tank, printed a September report analyzing 750 “terrorist” assaults and plots within the US between 1994 and July 4, 2025.
The report outlined “terrorism” because the use or menace of violence “with the intent to realize political targets by making a broad psychological influence”.
The authors wrote that it’s tough to pinpoint some perpetrators’ ideologies, which in some circumstances are extra of what former FBI Director Christopher Wray referred to as a “salad bar of ideologies”. For instance, Thomas Crooks, who allegedly tried to assassinate Trump in 2024, searched the web greater than 60 instances for Trump and then-President Joe Biden within the month earlier than the assault.
The total CSIS report gave a extra full image of politically motivated violence:
- Left-wing violence has risen from low ranges since 2016. “It has risen from very low ranges and stays a lot decrease than historic ranges of violence carried out by right-wing and jihadist attackers.”
- Proper-wing assaults sharply declined in 2025, maybe as a result of right-wing extremist grievances resembling opposition to abortion, hostility to immigration and suspicion of presidency businesses are “embraced by President Trump and his administration”. The report quotes Enrique Tarrio, the previous Proud Boys chief pardoned by Trump, who stated, “Truthfully, what do we have now to complain about today?”
- Left-wing assaults have been much less lethal than right-wing assaults. Prior to now decade, left-wing assaults have killed 13 folks, in contrast with 112 by right-wing attackers. The report cited a number of causes, together with that left-wing attackers typically select targets which are protected, resembling authorities or regulation enforcement amenities, and goal particular people.
- The variety of incidents by the left is small. A graphic within the report displaying the rise in left-wing assaults in 2025 as of July 4 is visually hanging. It’s based mostly on a small variety of incidents: 4 assaults and one disrupted plot.
Research haven’t uniformly agreed on some attackers’ ideological classifications. The libertarian Cato Institute categorised the individual charged within the taking pictures deaths of two Israeli embassy staffers in Might 2025 as “left-wing”, whereas the CSIS research described the motivation as “ethnonationalist”. Ethnonationalism is a political ideology based mostly on heritage, resembling ethnic identification, which might create clashes with different teams. The Cato research counted solely deaths, whereas the CSIS evaluation was not restricted to deaths.
“Whereas Vance’s assertion has a factual anchor for that restricted timespan, it selectively emphasises one short-term slice reasonably than the broader pattern,” Jipson, of the College of Dayton, instructed PolitiFact. “In that sense, it may be deceptive: It might give the impression that left-wing violence is mostly now extra harmful or prevalent, which isn’t borne out by the longer view of the information.”
The Cato evaluation, printed after Kirk’s demise, stated 3,597 folks had been killed in politically motivated US “terrorist” assaults from January 1, 1975, by September 10, 2025.
Cato discovered right-wing assaults had been extra frequent than left-wing violence. This analysis has been highlighted by some Home Democrats.
Flawed once more, JD. The information is evident: for many years, right-wing extremism has been the better menace.https://t.co/TkxBZ08Xjg https://t.co/PCWv4EuP4H
— Home Homeland Safety Committee Democrats (@HomelandDems) October 15, 2025
Cato wrote that in that interval, “terrorists” impressed by what it referred to as “Islamist ideology” had been chargeable for 87 p.c of individuals killed in assaults on US soil, whereas right-wing attackers accounted for 11 p.c and left-wing “terrorists” accounted for about 2 p.c. Excluding the September 11, 2001 assaults confirmed right-wing attackers had been chargeable for a majority of deaths. Measuring homicides since 2020 additionally confirmed a bigger quantity by the best than the left.
Our ruling
Vance stated, “Political violence, it’s only a statistical undeniable fact that it’s an even bigger drawback on the left.”
He didn’t level to a supply, however a White Home spokesperson individually cited an article a few research that examined political violence from 1994 to July 4, 2025. It discovered that, within the first six months of 2025, left-wing assaults outnumbered these by the best. It’s based mostly on a small variety of incidents: 4 assaults and one disrupted plot.
The research additionally confirmed that for 30 years earlier than 2025, right-wing assaults had outpaced left-wing assaults.
The research detailed that the left wing “stays a lot decrease than historic ranges of violence carried out by right-wing and jihadist attackers”. Analysis earlier than 2025 largely factors to increased ranges of right-wing violence over longer durations of time.
The assertion accommodates a component of reality as a result of left-wing violence rose within the first six months of 2025. Nevertheless, it ignores that right-wing violence was increased for a for much longer time frame.
We fee this assertion Principally False.
Chief correspondent Louis Jacobson contributed to this fact-check.
