Key facts
- President Donald Trump and Republicans are labeling Democrats as communists ahead of the midterm elections.
- Trump has described the threat of communism as greater than World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, and September 11th.
- Experts state that no candidate openly belonging to the U.S. Communist Party has ever been elected to state or federal office.
- Democratic candidates, even those on the left, do not identify as communists, according to experts.
- Democratic socialists advocate for a social safety net within democracy, not the abolition of private property or central economic planning.
President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders are labeling Democrats as communists, warning of a threat to the American way of life ahead of the midterm elections. Trump has stated that communism is the 'biggest threat to our country' and referred to Democrats as 'hard core, godless Communists.'
However, experts and political figures dispute these claims. Marc Selverstone, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center for Public Affairs, noted that no mainstream political figures in the Democratic Party identify as communists. He explained that even those aligned with democratic socialism advocate for a social safety net within a democratic framework, not the abolition of private property or central economic planning.
According to experts, no candidate openly belonging to the U.S. Communist Party has ever been elected to state or federal office. While some fringes within the Democratic Party may express support for communist ideas, they generally advocate for a market-based economy, making it inaccurate to label the entire party as communist. The Communist Party USA itself has a small footprint, and its co-chair, Joe Sims, agreed that recent Democratic candidates do not align with his party's ideology.
Candidates like Darializa Avila Chevalier, a declared democratic socialist, and Graham Platner, who previously identified as a communist online, have clarified that they do not identify as communists. Chevalier stated she is 'proud to be a democratic socialist,' and Platner asserted, 'I’m not a communist. I’m not a socialist.'