Trump and the revival of “red-hunting” demagoguery.
A “communist assault” on the US, you say?
A “red menace” sweeping American workplaces and washrooms?
“Socialist subterfuge” from Chicago to Cleveland?
Such talking points might sound like echoes from a seemingly distant past, from the dark days of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), when even the slightest accusation of communism was enough to destroy one’s life and career. Yet in 2026 President Trump, in his characteristically demagogic style, has sought to dust off such “red” rhetoric and employ it for a new assault against free speech and civil liberties, in advance of a potentially disastrous midterm election. Taking a page from the old playbook of Joe McCarthy, Trump has spared no expense in painting his opponents with the red brush of communism. “Communism’s easy to sell,” Trump declared at the NATO summit in Turkey last month. “I would be the greatest communist in history; I’d be right up there with Lenin,” he boasted, adding that communism has “proven to be a disaster” for “thousands of years.” Never mind that The Communist Manifesto was only published in 1848.
Trump’s buffoonish bravado would seem the stuff of unimaginative comedy were it not to have such deleterious implications for First Amendment rights. The main targets of the president’s fury are New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his allies in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). A string of recent electoral victories of progressives over establishment Democrats have unnerved the powers that be in both parties. Donald Trump and the GOP have particular reasons to be jittery, amid rising economic turbulence, a historically unpopular war against Iran, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Indeed, a perfect storm seems to be brewing for the president in November. In this context, the reliance on HUAC talking points not only serves as a natural weapon in Trump’s tool kit for debasing democracy, but also as a kind of “salute” to the memory of his mentor, the odious Roy Cohn, a direct link to the McCarthyite legacy of intimidation, lies, and obfuscation.
To be sure, the communist charges leveled against Mamdani are nothing new in the context of the GOP’s larger weaponization of all forms of socialism. However, such accusations have lost their bite in recent years, as more and more Americans turn toward democratic socialism in response to fast-growing wealth inequality, forever wars, and corporate influence on Capitol Hill. In fact, Mayor Mamdani’s impressive record in New York—following in the footsteps of Fiorello La Guardia—only highlights the success of progressive alternatives in American politics. Thus, the revival of explicitly McCarthyite talking points can only be read as a desperate move, a form of fatuous fearmongering from a failing presidency. The situation is apparently desperate enough that even Trump’s “court liberal,” the comedian Bill Maher, has chimed in to castigate Mamdani as a “straight-up communist.”
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However, the deployment of “red-hunting” tactics does not stop at mere electioneering. It also serves as a means of attacking civil liberties and silencing domestic critics of the Trump administration. Most recently, one of those critics, the independent progressive journalist Max Blumenthal, in violation of his First and Fourth Amendment rights, had two of his smartphones confiscated by US Customs and Border Protection without any explanation. Blumenthal was returning to the US from Iran, where he covered not only the funeral of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but also the impact of Trump’s criminal war against the Iranian people. For this alone, Laura Loomer, the looniest of Trump’s neocon nuts, took to Twitter to accuse Blumenthal of being “one of the leading communist voices in America.” The hope of Loomer and her fellow Trumpian loonies is to criminalize dissent and silence all critical reporting on the Iran war and American imperialism more generally. For his part, Blumenthal and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) have fought back, with the ADC issuing a motion calling on the government to immediately return the two seized smartphones. The government complied shortly afterward.
The administration’s attacks on communism are also tied to the president’s focus on giving a new lease on life to American imperialism in the Western Hemisphere. Following the coup in Venezuela and the illegal abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Trump’s neocon acolytes have become giddy at the prospect of achieving “regime change on the cheap.” Empowered by their “success,” they have now set their sights squarely on Cuba. In his first term, Trump already signaled an interest in reviving American imperialist designs on the island nation—from his decision to cancel Obama-era rapprochement to declaring Havana a “state sponsor of terrorism.” In the push for a coup against “red Cuba,” Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio—the son of Cuban immigrants who fled before the 1959 revolution—has assumed an especially vocal role. By all accounts, it was Rubio who was the chief architect of the aggressive starvation blockade that is now besieging the beleaguered island.
Particularly noteworthy in the context of the rising Third Red Scare have been Rubio’s efforts to directly tie Trump’s regime-change fantasies with the president’s campaign to stifle dissent at home. Baselessly branding Havana a sponsor of what Rubio deems “Far Left Terrorism (FLT),” the secretary of state has issued a 100-page report praising the “harsh government crackdowns” of the McCarthy era and calling for a new wave of repressions against a slew of progressive and anti-war American organizations and individuals. From the DSA, to Code Pink, to even Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, nobody is safe from Little Marco’s “crusade” against the “commies” and other “fellow travelers.”
Yet, if history is any indication, Trump’s “New Red Scare,” much like Joe McCarthy’s, will fall flat on its face. If McCarthy’s downfall was secured by a Senate censure, supported by President Eisenhower, then Trump’s downfall will be secured by the fallout from America’s coming trials and tribulations. Truly, as the Iran war hobbles on and the global economy shows signs of serious strain, it is clear that Trump and his market manipulations can no longer disguise the hard reality that now faces the nation.