Trump leans on “communists” as Democrats threaten Congress

Trump “godless – President Donald Trump has repeatedly framed Democratic socialists as “godless communists,” escalating fear-based messaging around the 2026 midterm races as Democrats look positioned to challenge slim Republican control in the House and compete for the Senate.

For weeks, Donald Trump has tried to turn political opponents into a looming national danger. At a Faith & Freedom Coalition conference on June 26. he delivered a 50-minute speech that blended Democratic socialism into a version of communism—again and again—telling an evangelical crowd their enemies were “godless communists.”.

The urgency behind the rhetoric is hard to miss. The Democrats are in an excellent position to overturn the slim Republican majority to win control of the House and could grab the Senate. too. Trump’s message in June. stitched across his public appearances and his website Truth Social. worked to link Democrats directly to the threat he keeps describing.

In that same speech on June 26, Trump conflated democratic socialism with communism 16 times. He used the phrase “godless communists” three times, according to the account of his remarks. Linguists and political scientists who study this kind of rhetoric have long argued that fear is most effective when it’s paired with a clear “us versus them” contrast—and in Trump’s case. that contrast was built for an audience already primed for cultural and religious stakes.

David Beaver. a linguist and professor at The University of Texas at Austin. told me Trump’s invocation of communism does not point to that particular Marxist ideology. Instead, he said, it amounts to “us-them politics” that played well for the evangelical audience. Beaver examined Trump’s speech patterns going back to 2020 and found recently what he called “some uptick in Truth Social name-calling and fearmongering.” He described the pattern as cyclical: there are long stretches when the president does not mention communism at all. followed by bursts when it fits what is happening and who is being attacked.

Trump also used his website Truth Social numerous times in June to “conflate” alarm about communism with the rise of democratic socialist candidates in places like New York. That is not abstract for voters there. On June 23. three House candidates backed by progressive challengers defeated the Democratic Party’s establishment candidates in the New York primary.

Daniel Treisman. a political science professor at the University of California. Los Angeles. said Trump “wants to capitalize” on those recent wins and take advantage of any discomfort felt by independent or Democratic Party voters. Treisman argued that with Republicans widely predicted to underperform in the midterms. exploiting mainstream unease about big-city socialists offers a path to victory against the odds.

The rhetoric kept running even when pressed directly. On June 29. in a rambling and repetitive answer when asked about democratic socialists. Trump tried to cast them as communists again while suggesting absurdly that the movement was “the biggest threat to our nation there is. maybe since our founding.”.

Beaver’s description of the word “communism” as an episodic tool—used depending on the news and the target—runs alongside another question that voters and political watchers keep bumping into: how many of these “scary socialists” are actually on the ballot?

It can be hard to track how many democratic socialists are running in a given year. because they often run in Democratic Party primaries. To get a roster, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) were asked for a list. Priscilla Yeverino, a DSA spokesperson, sent a list of three House candidates the national organization had endorsed: Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb of Philadelphia, Melat Kiros in Denver, and Oliver Larkin in South Florida.

Yeverino also provided a list of nine other “notable” House candidates endorsed by local DSA chapters in eight states. Among those candidates, one in Pennsylvania dropped out before the primary. In New York, three won their primaries. Four will compete in Aug. 4 primaries, and one advanced to a runoff with a longtime Democratic incumbent on Nov. 3.

Put together. the picture behind Trump’s sweeping threat looks more specific—and more politically consequential—than his broad warning suggests. So Trump’s threat is effectively 11 DSA candidates in U.S. House races, plus DSA candidates running for state or local offices in several states. The real worry for the president. in this framing. is not only numbers on a ballot but whether the message lands with voters.

Yeverino argued that the scare tactics are losing traction. “It’s apparent ‘Democratic Socialist’ is no longer a successful scare tactic. so Trump has pivoted to ‘Godless communists. ’” she told me. She added that the DSA advocates free universal health care, tuition-free college, childcare and affordable housing. Yeverino said efforts to smear the organization as extreme will continue to fall short because Americans agree with the policies the DSA fights for every day.

For Chris Rabb, the rhetoric is not the point; coalition politics is. I live in the House district in Philadelphia that Rabb easily won in the May 19 Democratic primary. defeating three other candidates. one of whom was formerly the chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. Rabb’s campaign, as reflected in his reputation in the city, has long been about clashing with establishment Democrats.

On June 30. just before catching a flight to go campaign in Denver with Kiros on the day of her Colorado Democratic primary election. Rabb spoke to me about what comes next. He said the DSA candidates in 2026 were not household names when their campaigns launched. but they share a popular political platform.

He shrugged off Trump’s framing and described a different challenge: getting democratic socialists and the Democratic Party to work together rather than collide. “I could care less what Trump says,” Rabb said. “This is more an internal skirmish here that can either become a full-blown war. or it could be a pivot point where the more enlightened members of the Democratic Party say. you know what. they’re winning and we need to understand why.”.

The sequence of June moves—Trump’s “godless communists” messaging in a 50-minute speech on June 26. repeated posts on Truth Social. and an emphasis on New York primary results that Democrats view as momentum—rests on one pressure point: the slim Republican majority and the real possibility that Democrats could flip the House. with an eye on the Senate. too.

Donald Trump communists rhetoric Democratic socialists DSA House control midterm elections 2026 Truth Social Chris Rabb Melat Kiros Oliver Larkin New York primary Daniel Treisman David Beaver