President Donald Trump used two recent speeches to deliver one of his strongest warnings yet about what he called a growing communist threat in the United States.
Speaking at a June 26 event and again during remarks on July 3 tied to the nation’s 250th anniversary, Trump said Americans must defend the country’s identity against what he described as a resurgence of communist ideas.
“There is now a resurgence of the communist menace in our land, including from newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally opposed to our way of life and our great success,” Trump said on July 3. “These are not mere political disagreements like differences over taxes or regulations. Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty.”
Trump continued: “They don’t want good. They don’t love God and they don’t want God. They don’t love religion and they don’t want religion, and they won’t have it, but we will not let them win. They have no chance against us. They have no respect for law, justice, principle, tradition, or your God-given rights. It’s an ideology of mass theft, mass control, mass lies, and mass murder.”
Trump then criticized those who teach that America was founded on stolen land by oppressors.
“As for those who pedal Marx’s lies about our heritage, who tell our children that we live on stolen land or that our heroes were oppressors, they’re doing something much worse than slandering our past, they are slandering and attacking our future,” the president said.
On June 26, Trump referred to “communists elected in New York City recently” who he said “want to completely destroy the traditional American way of life.”
Trump argued that these recent political developments, referring to the election of self-described democratic socialist candidates, reflected a broader embrace of communist ideas.
In his July 3 speech, he described communism as “a mortal threat to American liberty” and called it “the greatest threat to our country,” comparing it to major historical events including World War I, World War II, the Japanese Imperial attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Trump said communism has consistently produced oppression and destruction throughout history.
“It killed 100 million people just in the last century alone,” Trump said. “Communism is the exact opposite of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It’s death, tyranny, and the pursuit of evil.”
