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Last Friday, Donald Trump declared that the spectre of “communism” was hanging over the United States.

In a speech to religious conservatives on Friday, Trump warned that the “communists” were taking over the Democratic Party and that their goal was to destroy “the traditional American way of life.” But it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that he is merely looking for ways to counter the sinking prospects of the Republican Party in the November mid-term elections

Trump’s remarks related to the good showing of the democratic socialists in the recent New York primaries. Three candidates backed by the democratic socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani made a clean sweep of the Democratic Party primaries in the US’ largest city in a huge boost to the party’s left wing. All three candidates have called for the abolition of ICE, taxing the rich and have accused Israel of genocide.

Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.

Trump had repeatedly called Mamdani a communist during his successful run for mayor last year. This is a label that Mamdani rejects and says that all he is seeking to do is “to put working people back at the heart of our politics.” The resurgence of democratic socialism in the US is in reaction to the fact that while the US workers of today enjoy access to cheaper consumer goods and advanced technology as compared to the 1990s, their foundational economic security in relation to health, education and retirement has eroded drastically.

Between 1987 and 2017, the cost of a four-year public college has gone up more than 200%. Central to the American Dream is the house. But this has become increasingly unattainable. From January 2020 to December 2023, the monthly payment needed for the median home increased by more than 100%, while median household income rose just 12%.

Trump’s tirade against communism is no doubt shaped by the fact that when he was a young boy, the US was wracked by its Second Red Scare triggered by the onset of the Cold War against........

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