President Donald Trump has embraced a strategy of labeling various opponents as “communists,” extending a rhetorical tactic from his campaign into his second administration. This approach targets figures ranging from judges to educators, framing them as threats to American values.
Trump revealed this strategy candidly in August last year when discussing how he planned to defeat Kamala Harris: “All we have to do is define our opponent as being a communist or a socialist or somebody who is going to destroy our country.” After branding Harris “comrade Kamala” during the campaign, Trump secured victory with 77 million votes (49.9% of the total), and is now applying this rhetorical framework to his governance.
The actual definition of communismโa system where government controls production and services instead of marketsโbears little resemblance to the positions of those Trump targets. Raymond Robertson of Texas A&M University notes, “Unless they are arguing that the government should run U.S. Steel and Tesla, they are simply not communists.”
Yet “communist” remains emotionally powerful terminology, especially among older Americans who lived through the Cold War era. This term evokes memories of the Russian Revolution, the “Red Scare,” McCarthyism, and decades of geopolitical tensionโhistorical contexts increasingly distant from younger Americans.
Trump’s recent deployment of this language is strategically timed. During a speech in Michigan celebrating his first 100 days, Trump declared, “We cannot allow a handful of communist radical-left judges to obstruct the enforcement of our laws.” This rhetoric emerged during a challenging week for the administrationโan AP-NORC poll showed more Americans disagreeing than agreeing with Trump’s priorities, and economic reports indicated that the economy contracted during 2025’s first quarter as Trump’s tariffs disrupted business.
Senior aide Stephen Miller echoed this language at a White House briefing, using “communist” four times while criticizing policies on transgender issues, diversity initiatives, and immigration. “These are a few of the areas in which President Trump has fought the cancerous, communist woke culture that was destroying this country,” Miller stated.
Political communications expert Jacob Neiheisel explains that such terminology “tends to be a term that is loaded with negative affect, particularly for older Americans who grew up during the Cold War.” He notes that “appending emotionally laden terms to political adversaries is a way to minimize their legitimacy.”
Trump’s own political development was influenced by Roy Cohn, who served as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy during the infamous communist hunt hearings of the 1950s. Cohn later became Trump’s mentor during his rise as a New York real estate developer.
While actual communist governments exist in countries like China, Vietnam, North Korea, and Cuba, Robertson suggests the real modern debate isn’t between capitalism and communism but about appropriate government intervention levels. He argues that Trump’s rhetoric “is typical misleading political rhetoric that, unfortunately, works really well with busy voters who do not have a lot of time to think about technical definitions.”
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