“I think I’d be the greatest communist in history.” President Donald Trump told the Faith & Freedom Coalition on Friday that as a communist he could hand out free rent, houses and food, though the country would fail within two or three years. “Everyone will suffer or die,” he said. The Guardian reported the crowd at the Washington Hilton was a friendly one.
The speech, at the group’s annual Road to Majority conference, followed Tuesday’s Democratic primaries in New York. Three left-wing candidates endorsed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, upset incumbent or establishment rivals. Trump did not name any of the winners. He made what Al Jazeera called a glancing reference to “the recent Election of Communists in our Country.”
From there he went further. “All communists are godless,” he said. “These ruthless communists attack all religions, but in particular Christianity. They always do.” He said communists “will close your churches in this country” and claimed, without evidence according to the Guardian, that the New York winners “want to destroy our country, and they hate our country and our people.”
He also said “the assassinations of those who oppose them is a very important element of their ideology,” and called them “animals.” On Truth Social he wrote that “These are not social Dumocrats [Democrats]. These are hard core, godless Communists,” and called it “the Greatest Threat to our Country since its Founding 250 years ago!”
Johnson joins in
House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke at the same event. He said “there are little mini-Mamdanis popping up all around the country running for Congress,” and that the energy and money are on the side of an “insurgent left” whose candidates are “openly running as Marxists, communists.” Trump told the audience: “The Democratic party is in big trouble. This is not stopping with New York.”
What the record shows
Al Jazeera reported that no self-identifying communists are running on the Democratic ticket ahead of the midterms, and none hold elected office. Mamdani and two of the candidates he backed, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez, belong to the Democratic Socialists of America, as does Pennsylvania state representative Chris Rabb, who won a congressional primary there. The outlet noted that democratic socialists pursue their aims through elections, while communists in countries that have practiced the ideology gave up democracy for an all-controlling state.
It also pointed out that the DSA is not hostile to religion. Mamdani, Representative Rashida Tlaib and Avila Chevalier are Muslims, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez identifies as Catholic. The group’s Religion and Socialism page says it “refuses to cede the ground of faith to the religious right.” Trump had also called Mamdani a communist before the mayoral election last November.
The midterm backdrop
Republicans have trailed in polls for months, with voters accusing Trump of breaking promises to lower prices and keep the country out of foreign wars, the Guardian reported. Al Jazeera said his approval rating has dipped to an all-time low amid cost-of-living worries. Party strategists see the rise of Mamdani as a chance to attach the left’s most extreme views to the whole Democratic party.
A Gallup poll last year found positive views of capitalism fell from 61 percent in 2010 to 54 percent in 2025, while positive views of socialism rose from 36 to 39 percent. Among Democrats, favorable views of socialism climbed from 50 to 66 percent.
Among Trump supporters at the conference, Sandy Schoepke, who was selling Trump merchandise, said: “Whatever he does is OK with me.” Felix Angelastro, 65, called the Iran war “troublesome,” and when asked if Trump will lose support among his base, said, “I think he has already.”
Sources
- After progressive US primary wins, Trump takes aim at ‘godless communists’
- Trump attacks Democrats as ‘godless communists’ in test of midterms message
