Trump’s ‘Communist Threat’ Warning Echoes as Socialists Gain Ground in Primaries

President Donald Trump’s warning about a “resurgence of the Communist threat” in America has found new resonance following a string of primary victories by socialist-aligned candidates, according to a recent analysis in American Thinker.

Speaking at Mount Rushmore on the eve of the nation’s 250th anniversary, Trump cautioned that the threat is “now present in our country—including among newcomers who adopt ideologies that are fundamentally contrary to our way of life.” The president had previously referred to self-identified Socialist Democrats who won primaries as “hardcore, godless communists” during a June appearance at the Faith & Freedom Coalition conference.

Mario Alexis Portella, writing for the conservative outlet, argues that recent political developments validate the president’s alarm. He points to two primary races in particular that shocked the Democratic establishment.

Socialist Surge in Key Primaries

In Wisconsin, Francesca Hong, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and the state Assembly’s Socialist Caucus, nearly clinched the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Hong’s campaign drew scrutiny over her support for defunding the police, and she has courted controversy by engaging with left-wing streamers known for incendiary remarks, including one who said the U.S. “deserved 9/11” and another who faced backlash for calling Jews “demonic.”

More startling to party insiders was Michigan’s U.S. Senate primary, where Abdul El-Sayed—a physician and son of Egyptian immigrants—defeated Congresswoman Haley Stevens. If he wins in November, El-Sayed would become the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate. His campaign, backed by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, along with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, drew support from a coalition of socialists, radical Muslims, and advocates of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

El-Sayed has drawn criticism for comparing Oklahoma’s ban on sharia law to the Trail of Tears, the forced displacement of an estimated 60,000 Native Americans between 1830 and 1850. “You can’t understand a Sharia ban without understanding the Trail of Tears,” he said. “You cannot understand the challenges we face today without understanding white supremacy.”

Portella sees El-Sayed’s victory—along with the 2025 election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City mayor—as evidence that a communist threat is real and growing.

A Historical Throughline

The analysis traces the modern socialist movement back to its 19th-century European roots, arguing that today’s Marxist manifesto mirrors the utopian socialism of Charles Fourier, Henri de Saint-Simon, and Robert Owen. Those thinkers believed true freedom required the absence of masters, the elevation of labor, and the unconstrained expression of human passions—including sexual passions. Fourier argued that suppressing passions harms both the individual and society, and he advocated for accepting all types of sexual expression, including same-sex attraction and androgyny, as long as no one is harmed.

That ideological lineage, Portella contends, connects directly to the contemporary LGBTQ+ movement and its alignment with socialist politics. He notes that during the McCarthy era of the early 1950s, there was a perception of a “Homosexual underground” aiding the “communist conspiracy”—sometimes called the “Homintern.” The Mattachine Society, founded in 1950 as one of the first national gay rights organizations, was associated with communist-linked activists. Its co-founder, Harry Hay, had been a union organizer and Communist Party member who helped stage an 83-day workers’ strike at the San Francisco port in 1934. Hay was among the first to argue that gay people constituted a “cultural minority”—a concept he drew directly from his Marxist studies.

Today, that vision of a cultural minority is being used to dictate terms to the broader American public, Portella argues. The Democratic Socialists of America, the country’s largest socialist organization with over 100,000 members and chapters in every state, has advocated for extensive nondiscrimination protections, marriage equality, transgender rights, and stronger legal safeguards since adopting its platform in 2017. Now, the analysis contends, socialists have aligned with pro-Sharia Islamist movements, making them even more hostile to American democracy.

The Stakes, As Portella Sees Them

While acknowledging that the U.S. remains far from a genuinely Marxist society, Portella insists that communists have been waging an anti-American crusade since the Socialist Party of the United States was formed in 1901. He quotes Thomas Paine—’These are the times that try men’s souls’—and urges Americans not to remain passive while the legacy of the Founding Fathers erodes.

“We owe it to them, to ourselves, and to our posterity,” he writes, emphasizing that the ability to speak freely is crucial to the republic.

The piece is explicitly an opinion analysis from the conservative publication, framing recent electoral events as evidence of a broader ideological threat. As with any such commentary, readers should weigh the claims against their own assessment of the political landscape.

Source: www.americanthinker.com — https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/08/the-communist-threat-to-america-is-real/