Painting Democrats as communists wouldn’t have been their first choice. But current and former White House aides welcome the midterm election strategy that President Donald Trump has concocted — especially as administration officials have struggled to defend Trump’s economic policies in his second term.
“Where things are at right now, Trump’s record doesn’t really get the base too excited,” a former aide to President Donald Trump told MS NOW, acknowledging that “if you look at what voters care about right now, Trump doesn’t have a lot to boast of.”
“The GOP right now is smart to point to Democrats who are struggling with their identity,” said the former aide, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the president’s record.
After a wave of democratic socialist primary wins, the president has settled on a midterm message that conflates democratic socialism with communism. Trump has called communism “the greatest threat to our country,” and he’s aiming to convince voters that the Democratic Party is that threat — much as he used the moniker against Kamala Harris in 2024.
His aides haven’t corrected him, and after a year of private frustration that the president wasn’t focused enough on the midterms, they’ve welcomed the hyperbole and folded it into their political operation.
“‘Democrats are communists’ isn’t exactly our rallying cry, but if it keeps Trump actually focused and talking about midterms, we’ll take it,” said a Republican political operative familiar with midterm strategy granted anonymity to speak about internal dynamics.
Trump’s team isn’t new at figuring out how to work around him. Multiple Republican midterm political operatives have described a long-standing two-lane approach to midterm messaging. And one of them put it: “There’s what Trump says. And then there’s what we want candidates to say.”
“We are encouraging candidates to contrast themselves to their opponents as much as possible,” said another Republican political operative familiar with the White House midterm strategy.
But the president’s “communism” line has become too useful, and too loud, to ignore.
Next month, Republicans will host a first-of-its-kind midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, replete with marathon videography that will “100 percent” lean into the communist label that Trump has been utilizing, a person familiar with the convention planning said.
As Trump faces wilting approval numbers amid soaring prices and an unpopular war with Iran, a key convention focus will be — not on Trump’s record — but on highlighting and degrading fresh faces in the left wing of the Democratic Party. Those will include Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, according to another person familiar with the convention planning, even though El-Sayed is not a democratic socialist.
On Friday, Trump said the Republican Party’s fate this November is not necessarily his problem, telling Punchbowl News that voter anger is not aimed at him.
“They’re angry at Republicans,” Trump said. “But they’re not angry at me. They’re not angry at me, but they are angry at Republicans.”
Pressed on his lack of campaigning for GOP congressional candidates this cycle, Trump suggested that his 2024 victory seemingly precludes him from focusing on the midterms. “I said to somebody, ‘Wait a minute. You don’t understand. I won. I’m not campaigning,’” he said, adding that recent travel to Nevada and Los Angeles to make speeches was optional. “I could do a lot easier.”
Crying “communism” isn’t new for Trump — “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,” Trump said in August 2024 — but he has escalated the theme over the past few months.
The inflection point came on June 23, when a slate of democratic socialist candidates won New York Democratic primaries. Shortly after, during a July 3 speech at Mount Rushmore, Trump referenced communism over a dozen times, calling it “the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl harbor or even 9/11.”
And since then, Trump has referred to communism in speeches or online over 100 times, according to an analysis by MS NOW. And there’s good reason why. A survey conducted by Echelon Insights, a GOP research firm, shows that 52% of voters have a negative view of socialism. And 53% of independent voters, a coveted voting bloc, had an unfavorable view of democratic socialism. A June Economist/YouGov poll revealed similar findings, with 40% of independent voters saying they would not support a Democratic socialist candidate.
The Democrats’ “path to a majority is getting narrower and narrower because of candidates like [democratic socialists],” one of the people familiar with convention planning said, “even though they thought this was a slam dunk for them.”
In a social media post late Sunday afternoon, Trump showcased his midterm tactics: “Black and Brown Voters don’t want Communism or Socialism — Not surprisingly, they are flocking to the Republican Party!”
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