“I think I’d be the greatest communist in history.” Donald Trump got a laugh with that line on Friday, in front of religious conservatives at the Washington Hilton. Then he turned serious, and it was the serious part that carried the message.
Speaking at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s annual conference, the president called democratic socialists inside the Democratic Party “hardcore, godless communists” and said communism is the “greatest threat to our country since its founding 250 years ago”. He did not name a single candidate. He did point to “the communists elected in New York recently”, a reference to Tuesday’s primaries, where three left-wing candidates endorsed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani won.
Who actually won
News18 noted that none of the winners calls themselves a communist. Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier describe themselves as democratic socialists. Brad Lander, the third, left the Democratic Socialists of America in 2023. There are no self-identified communists serving in the US Congress at present.
Trump brushed the distinction aside. “They are becoming a Communist party, not social Democrats,” he said, according to the Guardian, and he accused the party establishment of lacking the toughness to confront what he called a plague on the party.
The religious frame
The room was chosen well. “All communists are godless,” he told the crowd. “These ruthless communists attack all religions, but in particular Christianity.” He went further, warning that they “will close your churches in this country”, and claimed without evidence that the New York winners “hate our country and our people”. The Guardian reported that he also said the Democratic Party is “in big trouble” and that “this is not stopping with New York.”
It was also his first appearance at the event since April, when he was rushed off stage after an assassination attempt at the White House correspondents’ dinner. “Hopefully, we’re going to have a little more pleasant experience,” he said.
A message being tested
House Speaker Mike Johnson used the same stage to push the same line. “There are little mini-Mamdanis popping up all around the country running for Congress,” he said, adding that some candidates are “openly running as Marxists, communists”.
The calculus is visible. The Guardian reported that Republicans have spent months behind in the polls, with voters accusing Trump of breaking promises to lower prices and keep the US out of foreign wars. Party strategists see in Mamdani’s rise a way to tag the whole Democratic party with the left’s most extreme views before November.
Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, has said “a handful of primaries” will not reshape his caucus. Whether voters agree will be settled by the midterms, not by a speech to a friendly crowd.
Sources
- 'All Communists Are Godless': Trump Launches Fiery Attack On Democrats, Declares US 'One Nation Under God' | World News – News18
- Trump attacks Democrats as ‘godless communists’ in test of midterms message | Donald Trump | The Guardian
