Villainizing Democrats Is Trump’s Latest Election Strategy

Claiming Democrats are “communists” is another fantasy crisis.

Bill Eddy / Substack / Aug 17, 2026

Remember the 2016 election campaign when Donald Trump repeatedly called Hillary Clinton “Crooked Hillary” and the entire Republican Convention chanted “Lock Her Up”? Yes, she improperly used a personal server for her emails sometimes for government business—just like many Republicans in government did without consequence. She was not prosecuted for this, but less than two weeks before the election, the Director of the FBI, James Comey, notified Congress that they were investigating an unrelated laptop that suddenly showed up with some of her emails. This gave the bogus claim extra credibility at the worst time. Trump won the election and the issue promptly vanished. Trump’s con was highly effective and may have won him the Presidency.

Now It’s Communism?

In August, 2024, at a press conference while gearing up for the Presidential Election against Kamala Harris, Trump explained his strategy: “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.” He then branded her “comrade Kamala” as his favorite label throughout the campaign. Reports indicate that he used this term somewhere between 30 and 80 times in his speeches in the fall of 2024. And he won the election.

Last month, a New York Times writer clarified that this will be the message again for this fall’s midterm campaign: “What Trump and the Republican Party have settled on to spearhead their campaign against the Democratic Party is the threat of communism.” In a July 3rd speech at Mt. Rushmore Trump said: “Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty. It is the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor or even 9/11. And we’re not going to let this happen to us. Believe me, we’re not letting it happen.”

Even the Republican majority leader Representative Steve Scalise recently said: ““The Bolshevik takeover of the Democratic Party is in full swing, and communism is on the ballot this November.”

Democratic Socialism?

Several Democrats belong to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Its members have run as Democrats and a few are starting to win elections. This is not new and not a crisis. A few Democratic socialists are already in government, including Senator Bernie Sanders (who is more popular than Trump), Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC), Rashida Tlaib (a Representative from Michigan), and Zohran Mamdani (Mayor of New York City). In June several DSA members won federal and state primaries in New York. On August 4th, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, not a democratic socialist but with similar goals, won the Democratic primary for Senator in Michigan. However, others have lost in primary elections as well. There is no socialist monolith taking over the Democratic Party and no Democrat candidate endorses communism. The Democratic Party is a big tent of moderates, liberals, and progressives (some of whom are members of the Democratic Socialists of America).

Yet, Trump has jumped at the chance to confuse the terms communist and socialist after the New York primaries. In a speech at the end of June he said: “And as you saw with the communists elected in New York City recently, they’re communists. They’re not social democrats. They want to completely destroy the traditional American way of life…. These are hardcore godless communists. They’re godless communists. All communists are godless. They don’t believe in God. This is the most serious threat to our country since its existence in my opinion.”

Fact-Checking

The facts show that communism and socialism are very different, and that democratic socialists support democracy and working within the capitalist system. The Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) with the highest standards of living are often considered democratic socialist, with widespread government funding of “cradle to grave” benefits. Yet they are also capitalist, free-market democracies with numerous industry-leading successful businesses.

For example, Sweden is constantly evolving through electoral politics, alternating between Social Democrats and conservative governments. Ironically, in 2025, Trump himself negotiated having the U. S. government own a 10% interest in the computer chip company Intel to help it out, which fits into the socialist concept.

According to a recent New York Times analysis, democratic socialists in America generally stand for taxing billionaires, reducing income inequality, universal health care, ending military aid to Israel, raising the minimum wage, free pre-school, and publicly funded elections (without corporate and billionaire influence).

According to a recent Washington Post-Ipsos poll, these policies are increasing in popularity, especially among people 18 – 34. However, this is still a minority view among Democrats: “About one-third of Democrats say they like democratic socialist candidates and 10 percent dislike them, but most have neither positive nor negative views of them.” Age-wise: “Forty-six percent of Americans under age 30 say they would consider supporting a democratic socialist for president. Willingness to consider a democratic socialist candidate drops to 36 percent among those ages 50 to 64 and down to 33 percent among people older than that.”

Do voters think that communism and socialism are the same thing? “Americans split on this comparison in the Post-Ipsos poll, with 30 percent saying democratic socialism is similar to communism while 32 percent say it is different and 36 percent saying they are not sure.”

The facts indicate that democratic socialism is not communism and is not one rigid belief system. Within a democratic system, their views are just some among many that can reasonably be debated and voted for or against. What is clear is that the Democratic Party should not be mis-cast as “communist,” as Trump is trying to do.

Effectiveness of Labeling

As the poll above indicates, however, nearly a third of Americans say democratic socialism is similar to communism. Confusing these terms has been effective for Trump. Throughout his political career, Trump has come up with labels for his opponents, including “Crooked” Hillary Clinton, “Sleepy Joe” Biden, “Crazy” Nancy Pelosi, “Pocahontas” Elizabeth Warren, Adam “Shifty” Schiff, and many others. He also comes up with effective phrases like “they’re eating the cats and the dogs—the pets of the people there” which may have helped him win the 2024 election, when he knew this wasn’t true. Another con.

While Democrats will argue the facts that they are not communists and that most are not democratic socialists, such fact-checking is pointless when it comes to dealing with Trump and his followers. As I explained in my prior post about gaining power with fantasy crises, Trump is not talking to the left brain where facts matter. He is talking to the right brain where fear and emotional intensity and extreme words matter; where simplicity and repetition matter. That’s why his emotional labels are so effective and Democrats have still not come up with a way to combat them.

I think its time to “fight fire with fire!” Last year Governor Gavin Newsom of California fought the Texas re-districting with a similar re-districting measure in California and called it “fighting fire with fire”—and it worked. Voters in California overwhelmingly supported this fighting-back approach. Likewise, I think that its time for a simple labeling campaign that calls out Trump for what he is actually doing with every issue: he is repeatedly conning everyone.

Con Man Trump

Whenever Trump says, “Democrats are Communists,” Democrats should say “Con Man Trump.” When he says we are winning the War on Iran, say Con Man Trump. When he says inflation is down, say Con Man Trump. When he says ICE is arresting only criminals, say Con Man Trump. When he says widespread election fraud, say Con Man Trump.

You get the idea. It’s not unrelated name calling, as his labels are. It actually describes his primary pattern of behavior. The diagnostic manual for mental disorders lists “Deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure” as one of the criterion (out of 7) for antisocial personality disorder (bold added). I don’t know whether he has the disorder, but conning seems to work well for him. It’s time to call him on it. Please pass this on.

Bill Eddy is an attorney and a resident of Ocean Beach.