The Spectre Lives On: Anti-Communism and the Ruling Class Offensive
Above: Detail image from “The Communist Monster Threatens to Undermine the Country,” by Thomas Theodor Heine (1867-1948).
By Mike B. for MLRG, July 2026
Of the voluminous works penned by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, few passages are as oft-quoted as the opening sentence of Manifesto of the Communist Party:
“A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of communism.”
Marx, Karl, and Frederick Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party. Translated by Samuel Moore, Marxists Internet Archive, 1848, https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Manifesto.pdf. Accessed 24 June 2026.
Just as the spectre of a cohesive working class movement haunted the ruling class and its institutions in the mid-Nineteenth Century, the threat of communism still looms large in the fear-mongering rhetoric of Trumpites in the present era. But for Trump and his kind, “communism” is a political epithet – a turn of phrase intended to galvanize his most steadfast followers and to divide workers and to place the American “left” on a defensive footing. Despite the glaring absence of a unified communist movement in today’s America.
The June 24 victory of three candidates backed by Zohran Mamdani in New York’s congressional primary triggered the most recent surge of red-baiting by Trump and company. Mamdani, a self-identified “Democratic Socialist,” has repeatedly drawn the ire of Trumpites. They label him the rising political figure as a “communist,” a “Marxist,” and similar terms. In the wake of those primary victories, Trump immediately took to social media to unleash a new wave of anti-communist hysteria.
Donald Trump appeared to burn the midnight oil on Tuesday night with a 2:38 a.m. ET post on his Truth Social platform.
[…]
“America the Beautiful will NEVER be a Communist Country!!! President DJT,” read the message.
[…]
And… he fumed about the “many communists” who he claimed are “running in badly failing Blue States.”
Mazza, Ed. “Donald Trump’s 2 A.M. Post Has Internet Asking the Same Question.” HuffPost, 18 Dec. 2025, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-2am-post-online_n_6a3b9204e4b0488a51b1840f. Accessed 1 July 2026.
The day before the primary election, Republican Senator Ted Cruz, Trump acolyte and longtime anti-communist demagogue in his own right, suggested that the Democratic Party has been hijacked by communists.
“Look, unfortunately, I think that’s the base of the Democrat Party,” Cruz told Fox News Digital. “If you look at who the Democrats are, they are Comrade Mamdani, they are AOC, they are Graham Platner, this communist Nazi oyster farmer. Who knew that even was a thing?”
“That is where the energy is in the Democrat Party. That’s where the money is. They’ve been radicalized.”
McDonald, Kiera, and Paul Steinhauser. “Cruz Says Mamdani, AOC, Platner Show Democrats’ Leftward Shift: ‘That’s Where the Energy Is.’” Fox News, 23 June 2026, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cruz-says-mamdani-aoc-platner-show-democrats-leftward-shift-thats-where-energy-is. Accessed 1 July 2026.
Trump continued his own line of attack days later through an extensive, inflammatory rant via his own platform, Truth Social. He warned that an impending communist upheaval would strike at the foundations of American society.
“I will be speaking at 1:30 P.M. to The Faith and Freedom Coalition, and one of the Statements I will be making, perhaps the most important of them all, concerns the recent Election of Communists in our Country… These are not social Dumocrats [sic], these are hard core, godless Communists. This is the most serious threat to our Country since its existence 250 years ago. Isn’t it ironic, we’re celebrating a very important Birthday, and instead of speaking about Christ, Freedom, and Victories of all different kinds, we’re speaking about yet another threat to the Foundations of America. These ruthless Communists will attack all Religions but, in particular, Christianity – They always do. All Communist Countries attack Religions violently. As you know, we recently struck Nigeria, and largely ended the slaughter of their Great Christian population. They know that if they go further, the attack will be far greater and, in that, they don’t want to get involved. I am saving Christians throughout the World, even though we are not in those various Countries, by hitting these Terrorists violently and hard. They will close your Churches, they will kill your people. This is what they’re about. This is the Greatest Threat to our Country since its Founding 250 years ago! President DONALD J. TRUMP”
Trump, Donald J. Truth Social post. Truth Social, 26 June 2026, https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116817526085394987. Accessed 3 July 2026.
And the most apocalyptic messaging to date from Trump came in his July 3 address in Keystone, South Dakota, on the eve of America’s 250th anniversary:
[Trump] framed the midterm elections as a battle against the “resurgence of the communist menace in our land.” He portrayed an America under siege by communism, which he described as a “mortal threat to American liberty” and one being revived by “newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally opposed to our way of life and our great success.”
“The Communist Party is made up of illegal immigrants, criminals, and everybody that doesn’t want to work,” Trump said, seemingly aiming his remarks at the MAGA base that elected him president for a second time in 2024.
Lim, Clarissa-Jan, et al. “‘Communist menace in our land’: Trump’s July 4 Rallying Cry to America.” MS NOW, 4 July 2026, https://www.ms.now/news/communists-trump-july-4-america-250-rushmore. Accessed 4 July 2026.
The bourgeois press dismisses the Trumpites’ anti-communist diatribe as a temporary political strategy largely aimed at curbing a Democratic surge in the upcoming midterm elections.
“Here is what motivates that messaging: 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 wants to link Democrats directly to the threat he’s pitching to America.
Brennan, Chris. “Trump keeps crying about ‘communists’ and we know why.” USA Today, 1 July 2026, https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/07/01/trump-communists-scare-tactics-democrat-socialist/90751444007/. Accessed 4 July 2026.
“The messaging effort comes as Republicans scramble to hold onto threadbare congressional majorities in the November midterms. It risks overlooking public frustration, particularly among younger voters, with unfettered capitalism at a time of growing income inequality and rising costs.”
Sloan, Steven. “Trump and Republicans return to communist attacks against Democrats.” AP News, 2 July 2026, https://apnews.com/article/trump-republicans-democrats-communism-election-2026-5381c24e8eb4235ae993e812ad45ffbd. Accessed 4 July 2026.
However, the “messaging” in question is not at all confined to the context of the midterm elections. America’s right-wing has repeatedly returned to anti-communist tropes in the era of Trumpism. Including legislation signed by Republican Ron DeSantis in 2024 directing public schools to teach on “the evils of communism.” (See: “Of Men and Boogeymen: DeSantis, Trump, and the New Anti-Communist Movement.” MLRG.online, April 2024.)
Republicans have certainly seized on Mamdani’s rise to escalate their anti-communist demagogy (See “Zohran Mamdani: A Preliminary Marxist-Leninist Assessment.” MLRG.online, July 2025.) But portraying him as a “communist” or “Marxist-Leninist” – along with Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, et al. – is conflating terminology aimed to vilify all left-leaning opponents in one fell swoop. Centrist Democrats also join in on attacks aimed at post-Mamdani progressives:
“…Josh Gottheimer, a centrist New Jersey Democrat, called the victories in Colorado and New York “aberrations.”
“We’ve got to fight like hell to keep our party from being hijacked by socialists,” he said. “Most of them are bomb throwers, not problem solvers.”
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford easily dispatched a more progressive rival earlier this year in his Democratic bid for governor in a state Trump carried in 2024. As he eyes a general election challenge to Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, he insisted candidates like those who won in New York don’t represent all Democrats.
He said the Democratic Socialists of America “is not the face of our party.”
Rep. Suzan DelBene, a Washington Democrat who chairs the House Democratic campaign committee, said in a statement that Republicans were “resorting to desperate attacks that aren’t actually about the pocketbook issues.”
Sloan, “Trump and Republicans Return to Communist Attacks.” ibid.
The ruling classes and their two parties clearly – and correctly – fear Marxism-Leninism as it is the antithesis of their system. A unified Marxist-Leninist movement would mean the demise of the oppressive capitalist system. But no such movement exists in the United States today. Whether or not bourgeois politicians and their base truly believe their own hysterics, the administration’s anti-communist rhetoric signals a turn toward punishing and imprisoning political opponents. All opponents of Trumpism should be on high alert.
Just as V.I. Lenin called for the unity of workers, trade unions, and socialist organizations against the reactionary forces of capitalism in the 1920s, we assert that a united front against Trumpism is the only alternative for the survival of the American Left in the present era. As cited in Bill Bland’s June 1994 paper for the Stalin Society (UK), this means:
“…the united front of all workers who want to fight against capitalism, which includes those who still follow the anarchists, syndicalists, etc”.
(Executive Committee of the Communist International: Directives on the United Front of the Workers (December 1921), in: Jane Degras (Ed.): ‘The Communist International: 1919-1943: Documents’ (listed henceforward as ‘Jane Degras (Ed.) (1971)’), Volume 1; London; 1971; p. 311, 316).
“The world situation and the situation of the international proletariat… demands… the establishment of a united front of all parties supported by the proletariat, regardless of the differences separating them, so long as they are anxious to wage a common fight for the immediate and urgent needs of the proletariat. It calls on the proletarians of all parties to do everything they can to see that their parties are also ready for joint action.
Tear down the barriers erected between you and come into the ranks, whether communist or social-democrat, anarchist, or syndicalist, to fight for the needs of the hour…
Proletarians of all countries, unite!”
(Executive Committee of the Communist International and Red International of Labour Unions: Manifesto on the United Front (January 1922), in: Jane Degras (Ed.) (1971): ibid., Volume 1; p. 317, 318, 319).
Bland, Bill. “United Front Tactics.” Marxists Internet Archive, https://www.marxists.org/archive/bland/x01/united-front-tactics.pdf. Accessed 5 July 2026.
As an integral part of a united front, Marxist-Leninists must hold fast to the examples of Lenin and Stalin, consistently opposing capitalist repression and fascism and guarding against the opportunism and deviationism that erode working-class unity. To maintain focus and principle, we recommend that Marxist-Leninists work towards a united front, promoting these maxims:
– Unity against fascism and its enablers!
– Organize, inform, and resist!
– All power to working people!
