When one of Donald Trump’s most prominent mouthpieces came across an article she believed backed the government’s claim that left-wing terrorism is engulfing America, she didn’t miss the opportunity to share it online.
Unfortunately for the MAGA loyalist, who is at the heart of White House communications, the article cited didn’t say anything of the sort.
“Democrats, calling your political opponents Nazis has consequences,” White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson wrote on X on Sunday, adding, “Study: Left-wing terrorism climbs to 30-year high.”
The piece by Axios did report that left-wing attacks have “outpaced” far-right incidents so far this year for the first time in three decades—but not that left-wing terrorism is at a 30-year high.
In fact, Axios even stapled on an editor’s note clarifying exactly that point.
“This headline has been corrected to reflect that left-wing terrorism is outpacing far-right terrorism for the first time in 30 years (not that left-wing attacks overall are at a 30-year high),” the note read.
The embarrassing flub comes as Trump has showered leniency and rhetorical indulgence on the political violence of his own side—pardoning Jan. 6 offenders and recasting them as victims, while even floating compensation for some.
And, after the Sept. 10 killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk earlier, Trump moved to brand the amorphous “antifa” as a domestic terror group—an unprecedented step aimed at a largely decentralized ideology.
The underlying study behind the Axios article, from the Center for Strategic & International Studies, found that, through July 4, 2025, researchers logged five left-wing plots or attacks versus a sharp drop on the far right.
Yet it also revealed left-wing violence remained far less lethal over the past decade, with 41 attacks and 13 deaths since 2016, compared with 152 attacks and 112 deaths from the right over the same period.
The authors also warned against using the data “as an excuse for a crackdown on legitimate organizations.”
Although that didn’t stop Jackson—who previously ran communications for MAGA Sen. Josh Hawley before joining the Trump administration earlier this year—from sharing it in an attempt to defend the government’s position.
The replies were, perhaps unsurprisingly, something of a bin-fire.
“Can you read?” asked one person. “Tell me you don’t know how to read a chart without telling me,” wrote another.
Despite this, at the time of publication, Jackson’s post remains online.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Abigail Jackson for comment.
