“I’d be the greatest communist in history,” President Donald Trump told a ballroom of evangelicals on Friday, June 26, 2026, and the room laughed. Then he used the line to go after Democrats.
Trump was speaking at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s policy conference at the Washington Hilton. In plain terms, he wasn’t talking about communism as political scientists use the word, meaning collective ownership of the means of production. Salon noted that his version boiled the term down to a list of handouts. “From now on, you don’t have to pay any rent,” he said, imagining a politician’s pitch. Anyone who wanted a house could pick one. Everybody gets free food. The punchline: “after two or three years, the country is a disaster.”
Why now
The remarks came days after two Democratic Socialists of America candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez, won their New York primaries. Another DSA candidate in Los Angeles beat a Trump-backed challenger in the mayoral primary there. Spectrum News reported that both New York winners ran on affordability for working-class voters.
Trump called the DSA winners “communists” who “want to completely destroy the traditional American way of life.” He also criticized a two-year rent freeze Mamdani proposed and the city’s Rent Guidelines Board approved that week. Such buildings, he said, would “turn into ghettos and slums.” Spectrum News pointed out that Trump made much of his wealth in New York real estate.
For scale, a March YouGov poll found 76% of Americans view communism somewhat or very unfavorably, against 44% for democratic socialism. Merriam-Webster defines communism as a system in which all goods and property are publicly controlled, and five countries run that way today: China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam.
Faith and the midterms
Trump described Democrats as “godless communists” and told the crowd that “ruthless communists will attack all religions, but in particular Christianity.” According to Salon, he also said the country faced “the most serious threat since its existence,” and that he was working on new messaging for the midterms. Salon said he teased the theme on Truth Social minutes before going on stage.
The speech wandered. Spectrum News listed religious freedom, immigration, gas prices, the Iran war and transgender sports among the topics. Trump repeated doubts about California’s slow primary count, saying “it was a rigged election” and offering no evidence. He also pressed for the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and an ID to cast a ballot. “We’ve got to win the midterms,” he said.
The audience was friendly. About 81% of White evangelicals voted for Trump in 2024, Pew Research Center data cited by Spectrum News show.
Sources
- Communism is greatest threat to U.S., Trump says at Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference (Spectrum News / BayNews 9)
- "I'd be the greatest communist in history": Trump tells evangelicals – Salon.com
