The “communist” threat mentioned by Donald Trump in recent days may have no real basis, but could serve as a weapon for the American president against his political opponents.
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The Democratic Party is currently experiencing a rift between the more centrist wing, associated in particular with Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, and that further to the left and more radical.
“Obviously the president portrays them as communists. For what ? Because they are more to the left, but also because it can evoke the long American history of opposition to communism,” explained the doctoral student in political science at Sciences Po Paris, Georges Mercier, in an interview with LCN.
Donald Trump therefore calls “communists” those who demand universal health insurance or more muscular measures against the housing crisis.
“These are political positions that, for us as Canadians, do not particularly shock us, but, compared to the center of economic policy in the United States, are indeed much more to the left,” underlines the political analyst.
Georges Mercier, doctoral student in political science at Sciences Po Paris, July 5, 2026
LCN screenshot
The latter, however, questions the American president’s strategy behind this communist scarecrow.
It could be a simple rhetorical device aimed at bringing back anti-communist sentiment to the country that would bring voters back to Donald Trump and the Republicans.
The tenant of the White House could also want to use this threat as a lever to implement more muscular political measures against his adversaries, suggests Georges Mercier.
“That’s the great danger here, because communism in American history has also been a real danger. There was espionage, there was in the 1950s what we called McCarthyism, the second great red scare. And if Donald Trump goes that way, it’s much more worrying, if he implements, for example, measures to monitor his political opponents, to control their data, things like that,” says the doctoral student in political science.
To see the full interview, watch the video above.
