Davin News Server

Right-Wing Terror Attacks Plunged In 2025, While Left-Wing Attacks Ticked Up: Study

From 2011 Through 2024, An Average Of 20 Right-Wing Terror Incidents Took Place Each Year, Compared To An Average Of Nearly Three 
Left-Wing Incidents Annually.

The number of right-wing terror attacks in the U.S. plunged dramatically in the first half of 2025, while the amount of political 
violence from the left creeped up, a new study found.

The report on terrorism and political violence by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan research group, 
found that, through July 4, "2025 marks the first time in more than 30 years that left-wing terrorist attacks outnumber those from 
the violent far right."

The study noted there had been one right-wing terrorist incident this year - the June murder of Minnesota state legislator Melissa 
Hortman and her husband.

The report, written by the Washington think tank's Daniel Byman and Riley McCabe, called that number "a remarkable drop off."

Their analysis reviewed terror attacks and plots, which they defined as "the deliberate use or threat of premeditated violence by 
nonstate actors with the intent to achieve political goals by creating a broad psychological impact."

From 2011 through 2024, an average of 20 right-wing terror incidents took place each year, compared to an average of nearly three 
left-wing incidents annually during that same period.

The report also found that the average number of left-wing incidents was two per year from 2011 to 2015, and then an average of 
four per year from 2016 to 2024.

"It's important to note it's risen from very low levels and remains at very low levels," McCabe told NBC News.

In the past decade, left-wing attacks killed 13 victims, the report found, compared to 112 by right-wing attacks in the same time 
period.

The study, which uses data through July 4 - before the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and Wednesday's attack 
on an ICE facility in Dallas - found there had been five left-wing attacks and plots so far this year. That "puts 2025 on pace to 
be the left's most violent year in more than three decades," it said.

The report suggests the drop in right-wing incidents may be tied to President Donald Trump's 2024 election win.

"Although it is impossible to definitively prove the link between the policies of and positions championed in Trump's second term 
and the decline in right-wing terrorism incidents in the United States, it is probable that at least some extremists do not feel 
the need to act violently if their concerns are being addressed," the report says, citing the administration's "aggressive" actions 
on immigration, targeting of the 'deep state" and crackdown on diversity initiatives.

"In addition, Trump's victory temporarily ended many concerns about a Democrat-orchestrated 'stolen election, 'a leading conspiracy 
that motivated many extremists in the past," the study says.

Conversely, "left-wing violence has risen in the last 10 years" particularly since "Trump's rise to political prominence," the 
study says, and has generally targeted government and law enforcement.

"The rise on the left has been driven by a combination of anti-government extremism and partisan extremism," McCabe said, and 
"their opposition to the Trump administration fuels the attacks against the political leadership and the institutions that carry 
out the president's agenda."

Of the 41 left-wing incidents since 2016, anti-government extremism motivated 17, and partisan extremism motivated another 11, the 
study said.

Left-wing attacks have typically been less lethal than the right-wing ones, with two fatalities since 2020. The report counts the 
December 2024 assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City as one of those two fatal attacks.

The report was compiled using a dataset of 750 terrorist attacks and plots, as defined by the researchers, between Jan. 1,1994, and 
July 4. Political attacks where the assailant's motive was mixed or unclear - including the July 2024 attempted assassination of 
Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania - were not included in the left/right data.
Recommended
politics
Government shutdown live updates: Senate adjourns after funding votes fail, pushing shutdown through the weekend
Government Shutdown
Government shutdown to drag into at least next week, with House out til Oct. 14

Butler shooter Thomas Crooks, the report noted, had searched online for locations where Trump or then-President Joe Biden would be 
publicly speaking, and while "it is possible Crooks had political motives, FBI reports and journalist investigations suggest the 
explanation was more likely a mix of personal issues."

The report also excluded some other high-profile incidents, including an arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's residence 
and a shooting that killed two Israeli Embassy staff in Washington, D.C., because they were classified as "ethnonationalist 
incidents."

Jared Holt, a senior researcher at Open Measures who monitors online extremism, questioned the methodology used to determine 
whether attackers are left- or right-wing.

"It can be very messy" with people who have conflicting ideologies, he said, while noting that the findings made sense.

"It's touching on something real," Holt said.

"I don't think it's wrong to say left-wing attacks have seemed to occur at a more frequent pace, but the previous pace was 
extremely minimal," he said, adding that right-wing violence is still a threat.

"These trends can reverse on the flip of a dime," he said, and they're "a symptom of the same thing. It's an extremist world view."

As for how to combat the problem, the report said U.S. political leaders and activists "need to lead by condemning violence on 
their side and calling for calm when it involves violence on the other side."

Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance have blamed the left for political violence in the aftermath of the Kirk shooting.

"If you look at the political violence in our country over the last couple of months, the last couple of years, it is not a both 
sides' problem. It is primarily on one side of the political aisle," Vance told reporters in North Carolina on Wednesday.

Vance and other Republicans have cited recent polling from YouGov showing that, while majorities in all groups opposed political 
violence, larger shares of younger and liberal-leaning respondents said that violence "can sometimes be justified" compared to the 
overall population.

However, there are serious questions about whether public polling on hypothetical questions is accurately measuring feelings about 
political violence in the U.S., and the CSIS report said it's increasingly common for people on both sides of the political 
spectrum to think the worst of their political opponents.

"While less than 4 percent of Americans express support for partisan violence such as assault, arson, or murder, both sides greatly 
overestimate their opponent's willingness to endorse such actions, with Democrats believing 45.5 percent of Republicans support 
partisan murder, and Republicans believing that 42 percent of Democrats do," the report said.

Those perceptions, the report said, create "a dangerous environment where extremists can more easily rationalize using violence."


===============================================================================

"Trump Derangement Syndrome" Is a Real Mental Condition

All you need to know about "Trump Derangement Syndrome," or TDS.

"Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is a mental condition in which a person has been driven effectively insane due to their dislike 
of Donald Trump, to the point at which they will abandon all logic and reason."

Justin Raimondo, the editorial director of Antiwar.com, wrote a piece in the Los Angeles Times in 2016 that broke TDS down into 
three distinct phases or stages:

"In the first stage of the disease, victims lose all sense of proportion. The president-elect's every tweet provokes a firestorm, 
as if 140 characters were all it took to change the world."

"The mid-level stages of TDS have a profound effect on the victim's vocabulary: Sufferers speak a distinctive language consisting 
solely of hyperbole."

"As TDS progresses, the afflicted lose the ability to distinguish fantasy from reality."

The Point here is simple: TDS is, in the eyes of its adherents, the knee-jerk opposition from liberals to anything and everything 
Trump does. If Trump announced he was donating every dollar he's ever made, TDS sufferers would suggest he was up to something 
nefarious, according to the logic of TDS. There's nothing - not. one. thing. - that Trump could do or say that would be received 
positively by TDSers.

The history of Trump Derangement Syndrome actually goes back to the early 2000s - a time when the idea of Trump as president was a 
punch line for late-night comics and nothing more.

Wikipedia traces its roots to "Bush Derangement Syndrome" - a term first coined by the late conservative columnist Charles 
Krauthammer back in 2003. The condition, as Krauthammer defined it, was "the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in 
reaction to the policies, the presidency - nay - the very existence of George W. Bush."