President Donald Trump speaks at the Independence Day celebration on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on July 4, 2026. —Alex Wroblewski–AFP via Getty ImagesMore than three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a U.S. President is once again casting the threat of communism as one of the biggest issues facing American voters. At rallies and campaign-style speeches across the country this summer, President Donald Trump is increasingly portraying Democrats as communists, betting that the message will sharpen the ideological contrast heading into November's midterm elections. The attacks intensified after a string of democratic socialist-backed candidates won high-profile Democratic primaries in New York in late June. According to a TIME analysis, Trump has invoked communism 94 times in public remarks and social media posts since June 25, describing some of the party’s candidates as "hardcore, godless communists."The Republican President used similar language at the NATO summit with world leaders, in his Fourth of July address on the National Mall, in remarks to religious conservatives, and during a stop in North Dakota, where he argued that communism poses a greater threat to the United States than major historical attacks and wars. "You can be a communist, or you can be a patriot," Trump said in his Independence Day speech. "You cannot be both."The barrage has become one of the central themes of Trump's political message heading into the November midterms, even as polls continue to show that voters remain most concerned about the economy and the cost of living. Republicans see the recent primary victories as an opportunity to shift the conversation away from those issues and toward a broader ideological debate. Progressive candidates have argued that addressing affordability requires expanding government-funded programs, raising taxes on wealthy Americans, and strengthening labor protections—positions Republicans increasingly characterize as evidence that the party is embracing socialism or even communism.Democrats, meanwhile, are divided over how much attention Trump's attacks deserve. Some centrist Democrats worry that the “communist” charges will resonate with enough voters to cost them competitive races, and blame the party's recent embrace of democratic socialist candidates for giving Republicans an opening."I would hope that Democratic primary voters pick more mainstream candidates, because every time they pick a radical, it makes it harder for people elsewhere to run and win," says Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the centrist Democratic organization Third Way.Others argue that trying to distance the party from its left flank only reinforces Trump's framing and distracts from the economic message they believe propelled many of those candidates to victory.“If running on that agenda invites attacks, I think we should lean into it,” says Joseph Geevarghese, the executive director of Our Revolution, a liberal group founded by Sen. Bernie Sanders. “The best way to guard yourself against attacks is to stand for nothing…The electorate wants candidates who are fighting to challenge the status quo.”The President’s critics are also quick to highlight the irony of Trump accusing Democrats of embracing communism while he touts deals in which the U.S. government secures ownership in private companies. During his second term, Trump has committed billions in taxpayer funds to transform the federal government into a direct corporate shareholder, commanding minority equity positions and governance rights in Intel, critical mining firms like MP Materials, and major industrials like U.S. Steel. Trump's attacks echo the anti-communist politics of the Cold War and the Red Scare, when accusations of communist sympathies could end political careers. Trump came of age during that period and was mentored by Roy Cohn, who served as chief counsel to Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the infamous anti-communist hearings of the 1950s. To be clear, the Democratic Party has not been taken over by communists. The democratic socialists who have won high-profile primaries this year generally support expanding government programs while still operating within a market-based economy. There are also no members of Congress who openly identify as members of the Communist Party, and no Communist Party candidate has won state or federal office in modern American history. Trump and other Republican leaders largely dismiss such distinctions as they center attacks around Democrats aligned with the democratic socialist movement, most notably New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. “We WILL NOT let MINI MAMDANIs take over the greatest nation in the history of the world," Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson posted on social media last week with a political cartoon depicting New York City awash in communist signifiers including a sickle.Republicans employed a similar strategy in the aftermath of the George Floyd protests in 2020, after some Democrats backed the slogan "defund the police." Democratic leaders spent years distancing themselves from that movement. Bennett argues that, while Trump's rhetoric is characteristically exaggerated, Republicans have been handed openings by a few prominent candidates with past statements expressing admiration for communist thinkers or flirting with communist labels. Darializa Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist congressional candidate in New York who defeated Rep. Adriano Espaillat in last month’s Democratic primary, had a social media account that she has since deleted featuring posts in which she appeared sympathetic to communism. “He is not making this up out of whole cloth,” Bennett says of Trump’s attacks. “It's much harder to push back when there's a grain of truth to the charge.”Some centrists have responded by drawing explicit distinctions between themselves and the party's left flank. Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York recently unveiled a platform emphasizing capitalism after democratic socialist-backed candidates swept several primaries in his state. Even candidates who have merely been endorsed by progressive organizations have sought to draw distinctions. Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan Senate candidate backed by Bernie Sanders, told TIME he supports capitalism and rejects the socialist label, underscoring the discomfort some Democrats feel about allowing Republicans to define the party through its most ideological wing.The debate reflects a broader reckoning over what kind of party Democrats want to become after Trump's return to power. Progressives argue the recent primary victories reveal an electorate hungry for a more confrontational form of economic populism centered on affordability, health care, wages, and inequality rather than the incremental politics that has defined much of the Democratic establishment. In Maine, the party is speedrunning through that debate as it rushes to pick a replacement for its Senate nominee Graham Platner, who ended his bid last week in the wake of sexual assault allegations. "Public opinion suggests Trump's message could resonate differently across the electorate. Gallup has found that most Americans continue to view socialism unfavorably, though Democrats express more positive attitudes than Republicans. Younger voters, however, appear considerably more receptive. A recent Cato Institute survey found Gen Z respondents viewed socialism more favorably than capitalism, and were more likely than older Americans to support candidates identifying as democratic socialists. At the same time, Republicans are betting that anti-communist rhetoric will carry particular weight among older voters and many Hispanic communities whose families fled left-wing authoritarian governments, making the message as much about energizing the party's base as persuading swing voters.