By Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON, July 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has sharply escalated his warnings about a communist takeover of the Democratic Party ahead of November's midterm elections as his political team tests whether the message can resonate beyond his core supporters.
Preliminary findings from his team's focus groups suggest the message strongly energizes Trump's base and could boost turnout among infrequent Republican voters, according to two people familiar with the matter. But
it appears less effective with independents — often decisive in closely fought contests — and younger voters who did not live through the Cold War.
The success of democratic socialists and other progressive candidates in Democratic primaries in Colorado, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Texas and elsewhere has given Trump and his fellow Republicans a fresh line of attack: portraying Democrats as extreme rather than defending Trump's record on tackling the high cost of living.
A Reuters analysis of Trump's public comments from June 23 through July 6 — when a string of left-wing Democratic candidates won their party's primaries in New York — found he invoked communism 81 times, including calling some of the victorious candidates "hardcore, godless communists."
Many of the progressive candidates argue that tackling affordability means taxing the rich, cutting military spending, opposing U.S. funding for Israel, expanding government-funded programs and abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Trump – known for blunt political branding – has been swift to label supporters of those proposals as communists. Many of the candidates, however, identify as democratic socialists who advocate pursuing progressive policies through elections, while communism seeks to abolish private ownership of property and create a classless society.
Olivia Wales, a White House spokeswoman, said "Democrats' embrace of socialism and communism" is an "existential threat to our country" and Trump will "keep calling out their radicalism and drawing a sharp contrast with his commonsense, America First agenda."
TESTING COMMUNISM VS SOCIALISM
In his July Fourth speech to Americans marking the 250th anniversary of the country's Declaration of Independence from Britain, Trump warned against the rise of communism, likening it to a cancer that had to be removed.
"You've got to cut it out, and you got to cut it out fast," he told a rally on the National Mall in Washington.
By portraying Democrats as socialists and communists, Trump has revived one of the oldest weapons in American politics. Republicans Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan both used this line of attack during the Cold War. But Trump's decision to use a traditionally nonpartisan Independence Day celebration to attack political opponents marked an unusual setting for the message.
Behind the scenes, Trump's aides are testing the new message with focus groups as Republicans prepare for the hardest-fought stretch to the November elections, which will decide control of the U.S. Congress.
The preliminary findings indicate that "communism" can be more potent than "socialism" in some races, while "socialism" may have broader appeal in paid ads and district-level messaging, one of the two people familiar with the focus groups said.
Republicans see the message resonating in particular with Hispanic voters in Florida – where anti-socialist appeals have long found traction with voters whose families fled leftist governments in Latin America – and Texas.
"It's an appealing message to voters and will help draw the contrast in November," said Alex Pfeiffer, a spokesman for Trump's super PAC MAGA Inc.
A 2025 opinion poll from Gallup found Americans still viewed socialism more negatively than positively, with 57% holding a negative view and 39% a positive one, though Democrats were more favorable toward socialism than capitalism.
Amy Koch, a Republican strategist, said she doubted the communist label would expand the party's appeal among younger voters or independents. "I just don't think that communism means the same for anybody under 55," she said.
U.S. Representative Suzan DelBene, who chairs the House Democratic campaign committee, said in a statement Republicans were "resorting to desperate attacks that aren't actually about the pocketbook issues."
REPUBLICANS ON OFFENSIVE
In the past week alone, Trump has invoked communism during an Oval Office exchange with reporters, at the dedication of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota, and at 250th birthday celebrations at Mount Rushmore and on the National Mall.
He has called it "the most serious threat to our country since its existence," said it potentially poses a greater threat than World War One, World War Two, or the September 11, 2001, attacks, and called it "a mortal threat to American liberty."
The strategy gives Republicans a way to go on the offensive after spending months defending Trump's economic record even as aides struggled to keep him focused on affordability, the top issue for voters.
Trump has repeatedly undercut that message, saying he loves inflation, while dismissing gas price hikes caused by the conflict with Iran as "peanuts" and calling the bipartisan housing bill aimed at lowering home prices "a big yawn."
Republican leaders, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters, are moving swiftly to amplify Trump's message, casting the midterms as a choice between "common sense and extremism."
(Reporting by Nandita Bose, Additional reporting by David Morgan and Andy Sullivan in Washington and Jarrett Renshaw in Pennsylvania, Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Ross Colvin and Howard Goller)
