Trump’s New Ridiculous and Dangerous Red-baiting

President Donald Trump and White House aide Stephen Miller at a press conference during the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, on July 8. Klaudia Radecka/NurPhoto via AP

History repeats “the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” So wrote Karl Marx, the OG of communism, in 1852. And this oft-cited observation applies to the latest nonsense from Donald Trump and his cult: the New Red Scare.

Trump and his MAGA zombies have been on a tear in recent weeks, asserting that the United States faces tremendous peril from communism and is a hair’s breadth away from eradication due to the pinkos’ diabolical plotting. At a campaign-like rally in Marietta, Georgia, on Wednesday, the Mad King laid it on thick:

The radical left is actively trying to destroy our children's future with the disaster known as communism. It’s communism… These are communists… The communists want to take [Mount Rushmore] down… They want to blow it up. They want to take it down…Communism is in my opinion, communism is the single greatest threat to our country and its history including even World War I and World War II, 9/11, and Pearl Harbor.

This is bunk. There’s no communist organization in the United States with any massive following or membership. (Estimates for the Communist Party-USA range from a few thousand to the 15,000 the group itself has claimed.) As for other far-left outfits, such as the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which has identified as communist, the numbers are likely much lower.

Of course, Trump and his minions are not really talking about communism. They are engaged in a cynical con job, deliberately mislabeling all leftism, such as the politics of Democratic Socialists of America and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, as “communist.” Pointing to the electoral wins of Mamdani and other DSAers, they are trying to generate hysteria about communism taking hold—equating socialism with communism and perpetuating a lie. (With his endeavors to force major corporations to hand the US government large ownership interests, Trump himself is striking a socialist stance.)

While Trump has long decried Democrats and liberals as “lunatics” in league with radical commies and antifa, the GOP has truly swung behind this idiotic red-baiting as the midterm elections approach. The red-under-your-bed fearmongering is intensifying. This week, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the House majority leader, declared, “The Bolshevik takeover of the Democratic Party is in full swing, and communism is on the ballot this November.”

No, it isn’t. But the Trump White House and GOP have issued their talking points. They have nothing to boast of, as the Iran War turns into a pointless quagmire that raises the price of gasoline, and little, if anything, is done to address the affordability issues many Americans face. So it’s back to the future with commie-scaring.

The absurdity of this crusade is no impediment for Trumpers and Republicans. When Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) was asked on Fox News about Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) calling for an end to Trump’s war in Iran, he said Democrats were infected by “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and “an anti-American point of view” characterized by a “hammer and sickle wave.”

Was Schmitt really calling Warner, a centrist Democrat who made hundreds of millions of dollars in the telecommunications business before entering politics, a commie? Kind of, no matter how ludicrous that was.

This red-baiting is what policy wonks might call a whole-of-government project. On Monday, the State Department released a ridiculous 100-page report that claimed the communist government of Cuba has mounted a “campaign of subversion” that has penetrated “the highest reaches of the US government” and shaped “generations” of American leftists, including Mamdani, the DSA, and other left-leaning groups and activists. It used to be that the Soviets were the Red Menace subverting the United States through their lefty puppets here. Now it’s Havana. The report devotes much of its breathless exposition to ties between Cuba and far-left American activists in the 1960s and 1970s—say, the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground—connections that have nothing to do with current US politics.

The Trump crew’s demagoguery extends beyond branding Democrats commies to associating modern-day progressives and Democrats with political violence. Using the present tense, the State Department report asserts the Cuban operation “is a campaign” that “has backed an unprecedented wave of leftwing terrorism on American soil.” And top Trump White House aides, including the noxious Stephen Miller and the equally noxious Seb Gorka, have been decrying what they call “left-wing violence” in the United States as “political terrorism”—and insisting it is a major threat to national security. (Narrator: It isn’t.)

At a conference on “left-wing terrorism” at the State Department last week, Miller brayed that from-the-left violence imperils “the survival of our republican form of government.” But he did something even more odious than hurl this bogus charge. He said:

One of the hallmarks of left-wing violence and terrorism is its completely pre-textual and disingenuous appeal to civil liberties in an effort to shield its own violence. This is the tactic that the left always uses to try to protect itself from facing criminal punishment. It is essential that we are wise enough and strong enough to understand that these appeals must fall on deaf ears.

When the leftist—who does not believe in freedom, who does not believe in civil rights, who does not believe in any ordinary notion of justice—protests that we are violating his rights, understand that he is lying to try to persuade people who are not closely following the political scene that some injustice has been perpetrated against him. We must stay the course and be completely unflinching in the pursuit of justice against these enemies of civilization.

See what Miller is trying to pull off here? As he and his comrades scheme to tar all leftists as commies and violent radicals, he’s laying the groundwork for dismissing any civil liberty concerns this nefarious endeavor might prompt. When we go after those lefty evildoers, he’s warning, they will claim their rights are being trampled, but don’t buy it. Accepting that argument, he huffs, will be the death of America.

Miller is establishing a predicate for violating the civil rights of Americans deemed enemies by Trumpistan. This is nothing new—just a major extension of the Trump administration’s despicable attempt to justify the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by tarring them as domestic terrorists and criminals.

By the way, Miller could not help but be his nasty self. He observed, “It's not a coincidence that when you look at these violent antifa demonstrations…to be blunt, not one of the people that is demonstrating looks like a normal person. Not one looks normal. They're all deformed in some way in their appearance, in their dress, in their mannerism.” I will resist making the obvious point.

The Trump gang is bent on intertwining the idea that Democrats are commies with the notion that the left is a cesspool of violence. On the same day that Schmitt suggested Democrats are all communists, he appeared on the podcast of Benny Johnson and agreed with this MAGA influencer who claimed the left is preparing “a mass slaughter event." (Remember, Johnson was one of the pro-Trump commentators who were paid millions in secret funds from Russia.)

Let’s go back to Comrade Marx and his view of history. At the end of World War II, the Republican Party was in a jam. It had been in charge during the years that led to the Great Depression, and many of its leaders had opposed US involvement in the war until Pearl Harbor. Those were two big oops. But the party after the war got its mojo back in part by assailing Democrats and liberals as communists, an effort led by a newbie congressman named Richard Nixon. This crusade blossomed into the Red Scare of the 1950s led by Sen. Joe McCarthy (R-Wis.), an unprincipled but effective alcoholic scoundrel.

Eventually, McCarthy’s fear campaign burnt itself out. But the presidential administrations of Nixon and Ronald Reagan each tried to reignite the red-baiting. The Reagan team went to great lengths to taint liberals and Democrats—such as the nuclear weapons freeze movement—as commie dupes and fronts for the Soviets. The Cold War was raging, and these allegations still packed a punch.

Now we’re in farce territory. The Soviet threat is gone, replaced by different dangers posed by Vladimir Putin’s regime, and it’s Trump and his loyalists who have become Moscow’s useful idiots (as I detail in my forthcoming book How Russia Won: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Fight for America). Yet Trump and his authoritarian automatons are whipping up fears about internal subversion and communism. And they’re linking this to Cuba, a nation that appears to be slowly collapsing. Under pressure from the United States and without oil from Venezuela, Cuba is seeing its power grid and food production systems failing.

As Trump’s approval rating plummets, Miller and his fellow plotters are trying extra hard to turn antifa and homegrown radicals into an existential threat to the United States—and to lump Democrats and all progressives into the mix. It would be laughable—yeah, Mark Warner and antifa together working to destroy America—but this gang of authoritarians seems prepared to abuse their government power to target their political enemies and to goose-step over civil liberty protections that safeguard political speech and action.

Marx’s point about a historical rerun being farcical has a poetic ring. But it leaves out an important truth: A farce can still be extremely dangerous.

Got anything to say about this item—or anything else? Email me at ourland.corn@gmail.com.

Did you see the special announcement about my forthcoming book, How Russia Won: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Fight for America? If not, please check it out here—and see the special offer. There will be much pushback to this book from the Trump crew when it is released in September, and I’ll need your help. In that announcement, I cited a wonderful endorsement from Heather Cox Richardson. Here’s another:

 There are plenty of right-wing yahoos running for Congress this year, and several are likely to end up in the House, including Brandon Herrera in Texas. He won his GOP House primary contest after Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales resigned his seat and left the race following the revelation he had a sexual affair with a staffer (who later committed suicide). Herrera is a gun fanatic, a YouTuber known as The AK Guy. (That’s not an abbreviation for Alaska.) He’s been a member of a neo-Confederate group, his online videos have featured Nazi imagery, and he has joked about the Holocaust. “I am not, nor have I ever been a neo-Nazi,” he once said, and you have to wonder about anyone who is compelled to proclaim.

In a video mocking Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, the prominent gun safety group, Herrera this week called her organization “fucking stupid” and said, “being a mother doesn’t make your opinion any more or less valid. Just because you let somebody cream-pie you doesn’t mean I have to give a shit about your political opinions. The fact that you kept your cum trophy doesn’t make you any less wrong about the dumb shit you say.”

This future GOP congressman called children “cum trophies.” Really sticking up for family values, right? By the way, House Speaker Mike Johnson is raising money for Herrera.

Speaking of the speaker… In reference to Trump’s unhinged speech last week, in which he falsely declared there has been vast election fraud and suggested “sinister” Chinese meddling helped rig the 2020 election against him, Johnson was asked whether it was helpful for at-risk GOP congressional candidates for Trump to continue “relitigating” the 2020 race. The Trump-toady speaker replied, “Well, I didn't hear him in that address...relitigating the 2020 election.”

Usually, when Johnson is asked to comment on some false or bizarre comment from Trump, he pretends he hadn’t heard the remark. This time he could not say he had not watched Dear Leader’s speech. Thus, he lied. He went on to point out that Trump said that 280,000 noncitizens were found to be on voter rolls across America. But Trump has released no evidence or data to back up that claim.

Douglas Wilson is a leading Christian nationalist. It was not surprising when he said this week that his major goals are outlawing all abortion, ending marriage equality, and ending no-fault divorce. He also remarked, “It is a matter of practical politics: Repealing the 19th amendment is a nonstarter.”

But Wilson doesn’t want to give up on taking away from women the right to vote. Noting that his “long-term goal is a constitutional theocracy,” he said, “Universal suffrage is not a conservative premise.” Presumably, once he and his fellow Christian nationalists are in power, they will then disenfranchise women. Until that time, he suggests, it’s best not to dwell on this goal.

And keep this in mind: Secretary of Testosterone Pete Hegseth has attended Wilson’s church and brought him to the Pentagon to lead Christian worship services. Yes, Hegseth is in league with a man who aims to strip from women in military service—who risk their lives for this nation—the right to vote.

Fox host Brian Kilmeade recently waged his own personal war on science—and common sense. On a segment about the smoke pollution engulfing American cities, including New York City, Dr. Marc Siegel, the network’s senior medical analyst, said, “You can limit your exposure and, believe it or not, I hate to say it, I know you’re going to cringe, but those KN95 masks—they actually get rid of 95 percent of the particles. It’s the particles in the smoke that lodge in your lungs.” Before Siegel could finish his apologetic recommendation to wear a mask, Kilmeade cut in and said, “Not a chance.”

The Fox host would rather risk respiratory disease and lung damage than wear a mask, and he was discouraging the Fox audience—with its elderly and at-risk viewers—from doing so. All to own the libs. It’s a death cult.

Some Democrats have joined the anti-left crusade of the GOP and the right. Appearing on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, Jared Polis, the onetime businessman and current Democratic governor of Colorado, proclaimed, “Socialism is a failed economic theory. I think it’s important to talk about the dangers of socialism.”

A remark like this plays right into the hands of Trump and the MAGA fearmongers. Moreover, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are socialistic programs, each originally opposed by Republicans as perilous steps on the road to communism. Is Polis saying they are dangerous failures and should be undone?

Polis was edged out this week by someone you’ve likely not heard of: Dominic Pino. He graduated from George Mason University in 2020, and soon after was a William F. Buckley Jr. Fellow in political journalism at National Review.  He’s now a member of the Washington Post’s opinion writing team—Jeff Bezos’ squad of ideologues who are supposed to champion “personal liberties and free markets.”

When CNN’s Jake Tapper did an on-air piece reporting that no charges have been filed against the federal agents who shot and killed Renée Good and Alex Pretti, Tapper interviewed a woman whose father had been cared for by Pretti, who was an intensive care nurse at a Veterans Affairs facility. She expressed outrage and disappointment. Looking to be edgy, Pino took a shot at this segment, tweeting, “‘Woman whose father was cared for by Alex Pretti’ is one of the craziest claims to fifteen minutes of fame I've seen in a while.”

What classless twerpiness. To be dismissive of a woman who feels anguish because her father’s caregiver, an American citizen protesting a cruel mass deportation crusade, was brutally killed by a federal agent acting without justification—that’s damn cold. It’s unclear to the judges how being such a shit advances “personal liberties and free markets.” Perhaps Pino can explain in a Washington Post column.

This is not technically an inspiration. But on Bluesky, I spotted a query that occasionally pops up: What’s the greatest one-line song lyric of all time? My answer is: “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine.” That’s the first line in Patti Smith’s rendition of “Gloria,” the opening track on her 1975 Horses album. In just eight words, she offers a sharp challenge to the most dominant narrative of Western civilization.

When I posted this, scores of Bluesky users replied with their own choices. “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose,” from Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee,” was a reasonable nomination. Bob Dylan’s “He not busy being born is busy dying” was another one. One respondent proposed Taylor Swift’s “In my defense, I have none.”

Obviously, there’s no winner here. And the replies to my post, unfortunately, are short on rap and hip-hop. But it’s fun to scan what lines have resonated with others and realize how music can deeply move us. Click on the post and see if yours is on the list. 

Many thanks to Our Land readers who wrote in to say they responded to the issue announcing the coming publication of How Russia Won: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Fight for America, by preordering a signed copy of the book. I deeply appreciate the support. Some noted they had difficulties navigating the website for the preorder. If that was you and you did not complete your purchase, feel free to go to Amazon or another bookseller.

Karen Horwitz emailed:

I applaud you for writing about that. The key to stopping Trump is dispelling his effective cons and this one is foundational as is the rigged election. Too many people have let this one go. For example, he released proof yesterday [that Russia attacked the 2020 election to help him], and it’s no big deal.

Anne Rosenblum had a question:

I don’t know if you address this in your book, but, in my gut, I believe that Putin may know more about Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, than the public knows. Why would a real estate developer be running beauty pageants in Russia for teenage girls?  The New York Times revealed last year that JP Morgan has many financial transactions re: Russian girls coming to the US. Comments?

It is still unclear what relationship Epstein had with Russia. There were connections, which I cover in the book, but that issue remains one of the many mysteries of the Epstein story. In Russian Roulette, the 2018 book I co-wrote with Michael Isikoff, we tell the story—in detail—of how Trump came to hold the Miss Universe contest in Moscow. It didn’t happen because of any Trump relationship with Epstein. But it’s likely that Putin had to give his approval for such an endeavor to proceed. In the new book, I explore Trump’s ties to Putin, but, as I report, even people who worked closely with him in the White House in his first administration were deeply puzzled by his bond with the Russian tyrant and couldn’t quite figure it out.

Mechelle Schneider wrote:

The comment about Donald Trump’s possible displeasure with your book hit a note with me. Since Trump’s speech last week on election security, I have been feeling increased anxiety. Trump called out Muskegon, Michigan, in his voter fraud attacks. Specifically, where I work as an election inspector. I work with great people. The false registrations were caught by the clerk before the voters were ever added to the voter rolls. Everything was turned over to Michigan state police and subsequently the FBI. The fraud was averted before it happened, but that doesn’t stop Trump from running his mouth. In a week I will begin working on early voting. I was looking forward to it, but after that speech, I worry. All it takes is one crazy with a gun inspired by Trump to come clean up voter fraud in Muskegon. Trump is a danger to our country. He is destroying our elections.

Good luck, Mechelle. Trump’s reckless remarks often endanger law-abiding and peaceful Americans. It’s disgraceful. Keep safe.

Olivia Koppell replied to the recent Our Land article that noted how false accusations from the Trump administration have, as I wrote, “triggered a criminal investigation now being overseen in the Miami US attorney’s office by Joe diGenova, a pro-Trump fanatic and former Fox News commentator who was part of the smear-Biden operation led by Rudy Giuliani that was aided by Russian intelligence in 2020.” She wrote:

This makes me think of the infamous Stalin trials. Clearly Trump/MAGA is headed in that direction. I feel a sense of panic almost daily.

Trump certainly yearns for modern-day show trials of his political enemies and critics, which is what will happen if these weak cases ever make it to the courtroom.

Stephen Blake had this to say about the recent issue on Victor Marx, the far-right Christian fundamentalist who won the GOP gubernatorial primary in Colorado:

When I hear the likes of Marx “hunting demons” or Peter Thiel warning everyone about the anti-Christ, I can't help thinking they must be the ones who are truly possessed.

“Why are you wearing that mask? Does that mean we’re going to be stuck by ourselves for months?”
“No, Moxie. There’s so much smoke from fires in Canada that it’s not healthy to breathe the air today.”
“I’m breathing the air.”
“Uh, yes.”
“Is it bad for me?”
“Uh, no, don’t worry. But why don’t you do your business and we’ll go inside.”