For a president excited about battle, denunciations of new progressive candidates have emerged as a more galvanizing focus.
President Trump calls Democrats ‘Godless communists’ in remarks
President Donald Trump criticized the Democratic Party’s policies and political approach in remarks on June 26, calling them “Godless communists.”
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has issued a warning. He told a group of religious conservatives that the country was at risk from forces seeking to destroy the “traditional American way of life.”
“These are hardcore godless communists,” President Trump said at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference last month, adding, “This is the gravest threat to our country since our founding.”
It was a speech that reflected the anti-communist fervor dating back to the mid-20th century, delivered by a president who has struggled with mid-term messages. He seems to be increasingly aware of this, telling another crowd in North Dakota on July 1 that communism in America is a bigger crisis than World War I or World War II or the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
“It’s like a cancer that spreads, and the sooner we stop it, the better,” Trump said.
Concerns about the cost of living may be on the minds of many Americans and the central driving force of the midterm elections, but President Trump has often appeared to lack enthusiasm for the issue, describing legislation addressing housing costs as a “big yawn” and affordability a Democratic “swindle.”
For a president excited about battle, denunciations of new progressive candidates have emerged as a more galvanizing focus.
This well-worn political tactic has been employed for years as both parties seek to define the other by their respective extremes. The trend of Democratic Socialists and other left-leaning challengers against establishment candidates who win Democratic primaries has given momentum to the Republican Party this term and has become a central concern of President Trump.
Never mind the lack of card-carrying communists in the crowd, Trump is keen to deploy a label with deep historical resonance and seizes on a more open embrace of socialism by some candidates. Left-wing leaders accuse the president of Red Scare-style fear-mongering and say it won’t work.
“These labels are outdated and, in my opinion, will not stick,” said Joseph Guivarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, a prominent progressive group.
But a shift to the left could pose a challenge for parties facing a favorable election cycle, and Democrats struggling with how to deal with the upheaval of populism.
new intermediate message
Republicans seeking to maintain control of Congress have quickly adopted the president’s approach to shift the election away from a focus on Trump, whose low approval ratings threaten to undermine the party.
“We want it to be an ideological battle,” said Republican strategist TW Arrighi.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said on June 30 that the midterm elections will be “an election of contrasts,” which he has characterized as a “clash of common sense and insanity.”
“And now you can add another line to it: common sense versus communism,” he added.
Democrats went on an off-season winning streak last year, winning special elections and flipping districts held by Trump.
The party is focused on reducing consumer costs, noting polls show deep dissatisfaction with the economy and concerns about affordability. The Iran war has exacerbated these concerns, sending prices of gasoline and other goods soaring and accelerating inflation, which reached 4.2% last month.
But the affordability argument was also playing out in the Democratic primary, with some of the winning candidates offering more scathing critiques of capitalism and more sweeping policy prescriptions.
They have also been harshly critical of Israel, urged a more aggressive response to President Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts, and accused Democratic leaders of not doing enough to confront the president, upsetting a party seeking unity against Trump.
“I think voters are angry both at Donald Trump and the Republican administration of our government, and I think they’re angry at the Democratic establishment for not effectively standing up to Donald Trump,” Gieberghis said. “I think that’s the problem with galvanizing.”
Democrats focus on defense
In New York, three Congressional candidates supported by Mayor Zoran Mamdani defeated mainstream Democrats in the June 23 primary. Like Mamdani, two of the winning candidates, Dalializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez, are democratic socialists.
Some moderate Democrats in Congress took this as a call to action. After a group of Mamdani-backed candidates won a landslide victory, Rep. Tom Suozzi, co-chair of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, put together a platform called “Promise to America,” which he urged centrist Democrats to rally around. Among the values on the agenda are security, human dignity, and capitalism.
Suozzi, who represents parts of mostly red Long Island, likened Democratic Socialists to MAGA conservatives, saying both are “very extreme.” They are also more organized than the centre-left and right, he claimed.
“We have to wake up,” he told USA TODAY.
CNN reported that Avila Chevalier deleted old social media posts that included “sympathetic references to communism, Marxist ideology, and Soviet figures, including Vladimir Lenin.” This included the phrase “taking control of the means of production.” She denied being a communist.
After the New York election, President Trump said Democrats were afraid of fighting back against “this new breed of sick people.”
“They don’t have the courage to do that,” Trump added at a Faith and Freedom event. “So they have become communists themselves and have become the Communist Party.”
Matt Bennett, a former Democratic operative who now works for the centrist group Third Way, said Trump and MAGA are “ridiculously exaggerating” what’s happening on the left, but Democrats still have problems.
“The strange thing here is that we don’t have to do that,” Bennett said of the communist rhetoric. “What some of these (democratic socialists) people have said is really radical in a way that we haven’t seen in modern times or from the left.”
“The problem for Democrats is that there is a kernel of truth to this, which is different from most of what President Trump has said,” Bennett added.
President Trump and the Republican Party have long tried to paint Democrats as socialists and communists.
It’s a common attack in states such as Florida, which is home to many immigrants from Latin American countries fleeing socialist dictatorships, but Evan Power, chairman of the Florida Republican Party, said it has more resonance now.
“This made the message clearer,” he said. “They’re here. They’re not hiding anymore. They’re slipping through the masks.”
As Republicans work to put Democrats on the defensive against the party’s shift to the left, the key results continue to provide them with more fodder. Another democratic socialist, Merat Quiroz, 29, won the Colorado primary on June 30th, defeating a longtime Democratic incumbent.
“People are afraid”
Democrats say they are trying to distract from Republicans’ failure to financially support average Americans. They say the election will ultimately be about the economy.
“I think people are afraid,” Democratic Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with MS NOW, adding, “They just want solutions. They want their groceries to be more affordable. They want to know how they can get health care. They want our housing to be under control.”
Guivarghese, of We the Revolution, backed by Bernie Sanders, said progressive candidates are capitalizing on a sense that elites are profiting at the expense of ordinary Americans.
“All of these candidates are making aggressive arguments about the need to take government back from the rich and powerful and make it work for working people,” Guivarghese said.
This is a populist wave that brought Trump himself to power, he said.
“I think this is a moment where voters are swinging from right-wing populism to more progressive populism,” Guivarghese said. “I think that’s the fight we’re in and that’s what President Trump is trying to stop by using Red Scare.”
Republicans acknowledge that consumer prices remain a major concern and argue that President Trump’s policies are helping ease fiscal pressures, pointing to tax cuts passed last year and efforts to address prescription drug prices.
President Trump’s midterm distractions
But Trump has at times dismissed affordability concerns. He recently undermined his party’s push to tout a landmark housing bill that will be central to its midterm message.
Asked if he planned to sign the bipartisan bill, which passed with strong Republican support in both chambers of Congress, Trump said he had not decided yet, calling the bill a “big yawn” and “very unimportant.” President Trump has variously described affordability as a “hoax,” “fraud,” “false words” and “con artists,” and said Democrats are responsible for high prices.
President Trump has been holding rallies across the country to promote his economic policies, but he often gets sidetracked by other issues. He has recently focused on renovations in Washington, D.C., that Democrats have derided as vanity projects, including renovations to the White House Ballroom, the Arc de Triomphe and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Polls show that these are not the issues Americans cite as most important. And even in states where Republicans need to win Congressional seats this fall, such as Iowa and Wisconsin, the president’s aides acknowledged that voters aren’t picking up on the issue.
“The president knows that the issues that matter most to the American people are the issues on the table,” Johnson said in an interview with USA TODAY, adding, “At the end of the day, I think he’s going to remind voters of that. We certainly will.”
Polls show that most Americans disapprove of Trump’s job as president, and his approval ratings in key constituencies are waning. A poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena in six battleground Senate districts found that Trump was trailing in every district.
“It’s clear that the Republican Party needs to do that because they can’t talk about what President Trump is doing because he’s so unpopular,” Bennett said of the Republican Party’s efforts to highlight the Democratic Socialists of America candidate.
But the survey also had dangerous signs for Democrats. In five of the six states, a majority of voters say Democrats are too far to the left, indicating that Republicans may be finding fertile ground to label their opponents as extreme.
The Democratic Party’s shift to the left creates new complications for the party, which is well positioned to take back the House and key races for the Senate.
“If it’s a referendum on Trump…they’re screwed,” Bennett said of Republicans. “But they would be better off if it became a referendum on DSA’s craziest ideas.”
