President Donald Trump on Friday seized on the electoral success of several democratic socialist candidates to ramp up his attacks on the Democratic Party, claiming it was being taken over by “godless Communists” who pose an existential threat to the nation.
The heated rhetoric marked the latest bid by Trump to portray Democrats as political extremists ahead of November’s midterms — even though portrayals of even the party’s most liberal candidates as “communists” are far from reality.
“These are hard core, godless Communists,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post earlier on Friday, an accusation he repeated during remarks to a gathering of social conservatives. “This is the Greatest Threat to our Country since its Founding 250 years ago!”
The president’s stepped up bid to label Democrats as communists follows New York’s Democratic primary earlier this week, which saw voters in three deep blue districts select self-identified democratic socialists as their candidates for Congress.
Those primary wins came on the heels of New York’s election of another democratic socialist, Zohran Mamdani, for mayor. Democrats could send still more to Congress by the time November’s races are set, with hopefuls on the ballot in several states across the country.
