Trump and GOP Revive Communist Attacks on Democrats for Midterms
President Donald Trump and Republican leaders have escalated a campaign strategy labeling Democratic candidates as “communists” and “Marxists” ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections, reviving Cold War-era rhetoric that echoes the McCarthy era. The messaging, which conflates democratic socialism with communism, has intensified following a series of primary victories by democratic socialist candidates in New York and Colorado, according to AP News.
Background: A Strategy Takes Shape
The Republican strategy draws on a long American tradition of anti-communist political messaging, from the Red Scare of the 1920s through McCarthyism in the 1950s. Trump’s personal connection to this history runs through Roy Cohn, the chief counsel to Sen. Joseph McCarthy during his televised hearings, who later became Trump’s mentor and fixer in New York real estate.
Trump has been deploying the “communist” label since his 2024 campaign, when he branded Kamala Harris “comrade Kamala” on his way to winning 49.9% of the vote. Since returning to office, his administration has used the term against judges, educators, and political opponents, as AP News reported in a background article.
Key Developments
Speaking at the newly built Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota, Trump described communism as “the biggest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, September 11. It’s a bigger threat, potentially a bigger threat than that, because it’s like a cancer that spreads, and you better stop it fast.”
Vice President JD Vance has similarly called out communism as a political shift that is “something we haven’t seen in the U.S.,” while House Speaker Mike Johnson has decried “radical candidates” who are “self-described, self-identifying Marxists.”
The renewed push comes after a string of democratic socialist primary victories. Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, was elected New York City mayor in November 2025, prompting Trump to declare it a choice between “communism or common sense,” as BBC News reported. More recently, Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old democratic socialist, defeated 15-term incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District primary on June 30, a victory that NPR noted makes her poised to become the first Gen Z woman in Congress.
Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC), who leads the House GOP campaign committee, told AP News: “The Democrats are making this easy for us. They’re nominating extreme liberals, leftists who are out of touch even with mainstream Democrats.”
Analysis: A Calculated Political Gamble
The strategy serves multiple purposes for Republicans. It aims to energize the GOP base ahead of challenging midterm elections, shift the conversation away from the economic fallout of Trump’s Iran war, and exploit genuine divisions within the Democratic Party between centrists and progressives.
Ralph Reed, the longtime conservative activist who hosted Trump at a Faith and Freedom Coalition conference, acknowledged that Republicans face steep headwinds this year. But the recent string of wins by democratic socialists, he said, allows Republicans to present a contrast between “common sense and crazy.”
However, the approach carries significant risks. Polling from Gallup shows that only 54% of U.S. adults view capitalism positively, down from 61% in 2010, while 66% of Democrats view socialism favorably. Younger voters, who came of age in a post-Soviet world, are far less receptive to anti-communist messaging.
Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, the group founded by Sen. Bernie Sanders, told AP News: “Young voters, who I would argue are driving a lot of the electoral energy that we’re seeing, came of age politically in a post-Soviet world. The attacks don’t land in the same way.”
Beverly Gage, a Yale history professor who has written extensively on Sen. Joe McCarthy, noted the historical through-line: “It’s not very many steps to get from McCarthy to Roy Cohn to Donald Trump.” She pointed out that earlier eras of anti-communist politics took hold because there was a large and active Communist Party in the U.S. and the Soviet Union was the country’s primary foe — conditions that no longer exist.
Democratic Divisions
The Republican messaging exploits genuine tensions within the Democratic Party. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), a centrist, called the socialist victories “aberrations” and warned: “We’ve got to fight like hell to keep our party from being hijacked by socialists. Most of them are bomb throwers, not problem solvers.”
But the progressive wing sees momentum. The Guardian reported that Kiros’s victory came a week after New York voters unseated two Democratic congressional incumbents, signaling a broader shift. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential Democratic presidential candidate, dismissed Trump’s communism focus as “bunk,” telling AP News: “I governed in an environment where the DSA was otherwise known as progressives. This dialectic is so deeply familiar to me, and I don’t over read any of it.”
What’s Next
With the November midterms approaching, the effectiveness of the Republican strategy remains uncertain. It may energize older voters who remember the Cold War but risks appearing out of touch with a younger electorate that has more favorable views of socialism. The outcome will likely depend on broader factors — particularly the state of the economy, public sentiment about the Iran war, and whether Democratic candidates can successfully counter the narrative by focusing on pocketbook issues.
As Al Jazeera noted, Kiros’s victory in Colorado marks another milestone for the Democratic Socialists of America, which has now scored wins in New York, Pennsylvania, and Colorado this cycle. With Democrats needing to net just three seats to win control of the House, the battle lines are drawn — and the “communist” label is set to be a central feature of the campaign trail.