Trump attacks Democrats as communists while preparing to host Xi

Trump is escalating his communist attacks on Democrats even as he prepares to host Xi Jinping. The contrast is fuelling criticism that his China outreach and economic interventions weaken his own political message.Stock photo used for illustrationUS President Donald Trump has said communism is "the greatest threat the US has ever faced", and he has sharpened that message ahead of the November midterm elections. But even as he attacks Democrats as communists, Trump is preparing to host Chinese President Xi Jinping, the leader of the world’s most powerful communist country, for a state visit this week.The contrast has become more pronounced after Trump’s primetime address this summer, in which he accused China of "sinister election meddling" in 2020 and revived his long-running effort to dispute his loss in that election. At the same time, his administration has secured government stakes in more than 30 private companies, prompting criticism that the White House is muddying its own attack line against the left. "I do think that we’re not offering a clear contrast," said Marc Short, who was chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence and worked in Trump’s White House in his first term.At the recent Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Trump repeatedly described Democrats as communists. "It’s going to be a communist country if they win," he said. "In state after state, the Democrat establishment has been overthrown and replaced by crazed lunatics and radicals," he added, before saying, "America has beaten communism before, and we will beat it again." The remarks referred to candidates aligned with democratic socialists who won Democratic primaries in Michigan, Colorado, New York, Florida and Pennsylvania, which Republicans say shows the party has moved too far left.That message is also coming as Trump and his party deal with political pressures before Election Day, including an increasingly unpopular war in Iran, concerns about inflation staying high and Trump’s approval ratings falling back towards historic lows. Meanwhile, the White House has secured agreements giving the federal government stakes in more than 30 companies, including nuclear power producer Westinghouse, metals and minerals firms, and chipmaker Intel. The administration has brushed aside criticism that such a strategy looks closer to a centrally planned economy than a capitalist one. "If socialism is government owning the means of production, wouldn’t the government owning part of Intel be a step toward socialism?" Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican and frequent Trump critic, wrote on X.At a recent House committee hearing, Democratic Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, "I can think of no administration in the last 50 years that is quite as communist as the Trump administration." Trump has said more such agreements are on the way, posting, "I will make deals like that for our Country all day long." The White House did not answer questions on whether it saw any gap between Trump denouncing Democrats as communists, expressing warmth towards Xi and taking large government stakes in private companies. Short said Republicans were pursuing "very legitimate attack lines" by arguing that Democrats have moved too far left. But he also said the administration risked "picking winners and losers in the economy" through its company stakes, Trump’s proposal to send USD 5,000 to every adult American if the Republicans keep control of Congress after November, and his push for price controls on goods such as pharmaceuticals. "I think those policies, you know, lead to enormous, enormous intervention from the government into the economy," Short said, while adding that he did not believe they came close to turning the US into a socialist economy like China.Trump has also spoken openly about his rapport with Xi, despite presenting China as a political threat. After visiting Beijing in May, he spoke warmly about what "an amazing time" he had there. He has also said he rushed work on a helicopter landing pad on the White House south lawn, calling it a "work of art", to impress Xi, while lamenting that a White House ballroom would not be ready in time. "I can tell you this: It’s too bad we don’t have the ballroom open," Trump said on Friday. He has also recalled visiting the Great Hall of the People in China and suggested the ballroom could become the "Great Hall of the United States".Marc Selverstone, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, said Trump’s praise for Xi reflects a broader pattern. Trump has also spoken of warm ties with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Hungary’s Viktor Orbn and Russian President Vladimir Putin. "His interest in strongmen who are communist and strongmen who are not communists," Selverstone said. "That’s constant, and playing to them is not unfamiliar to Trump."Trump took a very different line in 2015, when then-President Barack Obama was preparing to host Xi at the White House and Trump was running for president for the first time. "Just take them to McDonald’s and go back to the negotiating table," Trump said at a rally in South Carolina. He later told Fox News that Xi might at least deserve "probably a double-size Big Mac". After entering the White House, however, Trump’s tone shifted. By 2018, he was marvelling at Xi’s position in China, saying at a Republican fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago, "He’s now president for life."Trump appeared to take a harder line in July when he announced the declassification of documents that he said showed a pattern of Chinese interference in US elections. "Our elections were left vulnerable to being rigged and stolen," he said, though he did not criticise Xi directly or call for penalties against China. The documents did not reveal much new information or support Trump’s claims. He later played down the issue, saying, "It took place a long time ago. I think China is maybe a little bit different today than it was then." Senior administration officials declined to say whether the allegations of Chinese meddling in the 2020 election would come up in Trump’s talks with Xi.Ali Wyne, a senior research and advocacy adviser on US-China relations at the International Crisis Group, said domestic politics was unlikely to shape the summit in any major way. "President Trump was very quick, in the aftermath of the (July) speech, to focus his ire on the mainstream media, Democrats. He didn’t condemn President Xi," Wyne said, adding that Trump had made it "clear that the US relationship was still on track". As Trump heads into the summit and the midterm campaign, his attacks on Democrats, his government intervention in the economy and his handling of Xi remain closely intertwined.With PTI Inputs- EndsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Sep 21, 2026 10:10 IST