Trump and MAGA’s big Red Scare: A midterm ‘communist’ threat built on fear and lies
Every single indicator shows that Republicans are headed for an absolute disaster of a midterm election. Polling shows them potentially losing Senate seats in Texas, Kansas and even Iowa.
Every week, the generic ballot, which determines if voters would prefer a replacement-level Democrat or Republican for Congress, shows Democrats gaining a lead with almost every survey. Gas prices continue to climb and the Federal Reserve raised interest rates this week.
And that has President Donald Trump and his lockstep Republican leadership drawing from an ancient well: Fear-mongering about ... communism.
Even the late Sen. Joe McCarthy, who effectively made red-baiting a brand in the 1950s, might be rolling his eyes if he weren’t rolling in his grave over MAGA’s broad definition of a communist.
During the unprecedented (for a reason) Republican midterm convention, the GOP frequently invoked communism and socialism, painting Democrats as all in thrall to the far left of the party. Plenty of them sought to tie the Democrats to Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, even displaying images of Piker in his underwear. And Republicans are seeking to paint Democratic challengers as all socialist or communist-obsessed.
“We've described that contrast in five words: common sense versus communist crazy,” House Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) told reporters during the House GOP’s weekly press conference.
“Karl Marx used socialism and communism interchangeably. He believed socialism was a step to get to communism,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said. “These these crazy candidates believe the same thing.”
Trump has used the same formulation in his rhetoric, reposting videos and images on his Truth Social account saying “DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM MUST BE CRIMINALIZED; LEADERS DEPORTED!”
It’s tempting to think the Democratic Party is overtaken by socialists. A series of high-profile primaries throughout the summer showed members of the Democratic Socialists of America knock off Democratic incumbents in New York, Colorado and Michigan.
And Americans still remain largely allergic to socialism. A New York Times/Siena College poll shows that only 18 percent of likely American voters consider themselves democratic socialists. The same survey showed that while 38 percent of likely voters have a favorable opinion of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (who is set to meet with Trump at Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s residence, for a second one-on-one late Monday afternoon), the most prominent elected democratic socialist in the United States, 34 percent have an unfavorable opinion of the mayor and 22 percent don’t know or refused.
And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), often seen as the most likely potential socialist candidate for president, has a 41 percent unfavorable rate.
But there’s one big problem: There is no impending socialist threat. Even with the victories of DSA-endorsed candidates and even left-wing Senate candidates like Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, moderate Democrats far outpace socialist candidates. Only seven DSA-endorsed candidates have won primaries in shoe-in primaries.
And DSA-endorsed candidates have lost as many, if not more congressional races. By contrast, the political action committee for the Blue Dogs, the conservative contingent of the party, has 16 candidates going to the general. Democrats still largely depend on their support to flip seats to the extent that even Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have endorsed Blue Dogs like Bob Brooks in Pennsylvania’s 7th district and Sam Forstag in Montana’s 1st district.
By the same token, the New Democratic Coalition, the contigency of slightly more-moderate Democrats, have gotten behind 36 candidates (and there is some crossover between these endorsements). That means the moderate coalitions have far more of a voice than the socialists in the House Democratic caucus and would if they take back the majority in the House.
Jeffries, for his part, has been much more antagonistic toward the DSA wing of the party and would likely be more restrictive.
Republicans are trying to paint these centrists as out-of-touch socialists, or rather, “communists.” But it’s fairly difficult to depict Iowa’s Lindsay James, whom McClain called out, as either when she’s a chaplain. Meanwhile, the reality is that many in the Democratic caucus have already denounced socialism. In November 2025, 86 Democrats voted for a resolution by Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar denouncing “the horrors of socialism.”
It also ignores the fact that Trump himself has taken somewhat communist-style actions such as having the U.S. government take a 15 percent share in Nvidia’s exports to China and government golden share. There’s also that and his pledge to give $5,000 checks to U.S. adults to spend in the United States. AAnd of course, that second confab with Mamdani.
When The Independent asked Johnson about this big red paintbrush his team and Trump are using, he dodged.
“So what the president is articulating — he comes up with creative ideas all the time, he's the ideas director — and we have a hard time keeping pace with it sometimes,” Johnson said in a bit of word salad.
Johnson did not mention the public ownership part.
And on Friday, Trump took another Soviet-style step when he banned CNN, Politico and MSNOW from the White House. So one has to wonder, which team really is more closely aligned with the notion of communist-style leadership.
