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America’s Third Red Scare

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........

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