'Enemies of civilization': top Trump officials launch sweeping attack on left

'Enemies of civilization': top Trump officials launch sweeping attack on left. Marco Rubio and Stephen Miller took aim at only leftwing activism at meeting of 66 nations against political violence. Top Trump officials on Thursday hosted a gathering of 66 nations to discuss the supposed threat of leftwing violence, and launched a series of diatribes, harsh even by the standards of the Trump administration, against leftism. The conference, convened by Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, and attended by Stephen Miller, a top Trump adviser, and Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, was billed as a "ministerial on the resurgence of political violence", but the focus was solely on crushing leftist violence. The officials did not mention episodes of rightwing attacks, such as the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill. Rubio embraced unusually dehumanizing language towards leftwing activists. He called leftists "an encroaching darkness" and "the enemies of civilization". "We will dismantle these networks brick by brick," he added. Later on Thursday, the state department announced a "new visa restriction policy that targets members of Far-Left Terrorist and other aligned groups". It was not immediately clear who would be subject to the new visa restrictions. Rubio also attempted to link disparate groups together. "Iranian proxy networks", he said, "are increasingly intimately tied to leftist militant groups around the world". Bessent was the only speaker to pay lip service to concepts of freedom of speech: "To be clear, in the fight against domestic terrorism, we must respect the constitutional rights of freedom of speech, association and assembly of all Americans." Bessent is a former employee of George Soros, who some on the far-right have frequently accused of wrongdoing. A state department spokesperson said the 66 participating countries included Argentina, Canada, France, Germany and Spain.