The Noose Is Tightening

But not where Trump wants it tightened. Gee, the evidence is showing that it was not vandals.

Crews at Reflecting Pool appear to gather evidence at failure points identified in Post report

Photos show at least a dozen locations being scrutinized, including three where The Post documented peeling.

The Washington Post

By Meg Kelly, Jarrett Ley and Maura Judkis

July 23, 2026

Photos taken at the Lincoln Memorial’s drained Reflecting Pool last week appear to show government employees gathering evidence in at least a dozen places, including three that were identified in a Washington Post analysis as locations where newly applied coating had peeled.

Administration officials have repeatedly claimed vandals are to blame for the damage that appeared just two weeks after the $14 million renovation was completed in early June. President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post last week that “the slashes were 300 yards long.” Other officials have offered varying descriptions, raising questions about the cause and extent of the damage.

The analysis published by The Post last week found that the pool’s lining had peeled away in at least seven spots along seams that were created when the material was applied in large rectangular sections. Experts said the pattern likely indicated problems in how the material was installed, but they stopped short of diagnosing a definitive application error.

That wasn't the reason I wrote this this afternoon, but rather to ask one question.

This started as a 'no-bid' contract promised to cost around $1.5 million, with the administration bypassing competitive bidding by invoking 'unusual and compelling urgency' for the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations. But the price tag quickly mushroomed to over $16 million! Also, you might remember that the jobs were handed straight to Trump's 'pool guys'. Now that it's looking like poor workmanship, Trump starts screaming 'Vandals!

So now it is looking like poor workmanship by Trump's "pool guy," so is he going to pay for the repairs or are they still going to scream "Vandals"? WRAL reported that;

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, whose agency oversees the National Park Service, said that after the water is drained and debris is cleaned from Independence Day fireworks, the plan for the pool is straightforward: “Repair the vandalism that was done. Fill it back up again." He was speaking with conservative podcaster Katie Miller.

They have their scapegoat, former Olympic canoe racer David Hearn, and it will all be blamed on vandals to get the contractors off the hook.

You Won One!

Trump & Company backed down because of all of you! You spoke your piece, and they backed off.

Trump administration caves to public pressure after avalanche of opposition to anti-trans hospital rule

More than 30,000 public comments helped derail an HHS proposal that threatened funding for hospitals providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth.

The Advocate

Christopher Wiggins

Jul 14, 2026

A flood of public opposition helped stop one of the Trump administration’s most extreme attempts to force hospitals nationwide to abandon gender-affirming care for transgender young people, offering a rare and instructive victory against a federal government that has otherwise moved aggressively to dismantle trans rights.

The Department of Health and Human Services has abandoned a proposed rule that would have threatened hospitals with the loss of all Medicare and Medicaid funding if they continued to provide transition-related care to minors, NPR was first to report on Monday. The proposal, issued in December, never took effect.

[...]

The administration has not publicly credited the comments for its reversal. But former federal health officials and administrative law experts told The Advocate that the public record created through the comment process can expose legal weaknesses, force agencies to confront evidence they would rather ignore, and make a rule more difficult to defend in court.

You did it! You stood up to Trump's juggernaut and made them blink!

NPR News reported that,

The fact that the Trump administration is backing off from this action is "a victory for people who are defending the rights and interests of trans people," says Sam Bagenstos, a professor at Michigan Law who served as general counsel at HHS under the Biden administration. "But I don't think it indicates a more general retreat from the aggressive posture of the Trump administration."

Bagenstos notes that this type of leverage — a "conditions of participation" rule for the Medicare and Medicaid program — has historically been used by HHS to compel states and hospitals to meet basic health and safety standards. Things like "making sure that you have stockpiles of certain kinds of equipment, making sure that you have certain kinds of emergency protocols, making sure that you have certain staffing ratios," he explains.

The proposed rule is unprecedented, Bagenstos says, because it instead would prohibit certain kinds of treatments for a certain population. He says it seems unlawful in a variety of ways. For one, "it violates the Medicare Act, which says that Medicare and Medicaid can't be used to control the practice of medicine within the state — states get to regulate the practice of medicine," Bagenstos says.

Just to be clear... we won a battle, not the war.

Trump still hates us. They got their hands slapped, but that is all. Still... I think it surprised the hell out of them. They live in their own little fantasy world and think that everyone thinks the same way they do.

Wins?

Trump's hand picked candidates are winning the primaries but... how do they look in November? That is the question! As you can guess in strong Republican state, they have a strong likelihood of winning in November but what about in Purple sates?

Trump is getting the Republican Party he wants. But can he win in the midterms?

AP News

By  BILL BARROW and STEVE PEOPLES

May 27, 2026

Donald Trump is on a winning streak in Republican primaries, most recently endorsing Ken Paxton ahead of his Tuesday runoff victory over Sen. John Cornyn in Texas.

The president bragged at his Cabinet meeting Wednesday that Paxton’s romp “was a prelude” for success in the November midterms. But Trump’s tightening grip on his party could make it harder to hold back Democratic advances as Republicans face a broader electorate that has soured on his second term and the economy.

The risk is compounded, Republican operatives say, by how cavalier the billionaire president has been in addressing Americans’ financial worries, which have been exacerbated by Trump’s trade roller coaster and his ongoing war against Iran. And the president gave them new material to worry about when he said concerns about November are playing no part in his negotiations with Tehran.

“They thought they were going to out-wait me. You know, ’We’ll out-wait him. He’s got the midterms,” Trump said while surrounded by top administration officials. “I don’t care about the midterms.”

Yeah but... "It is the economy, stupid!" And it is the war the people care about!

Not only are prices higher after Trump’s tariffs and his Iran war, but the president has repeatedly described affordability concerns as a “hoax.”

Trump has mused that increases in gas prices — up more than 50% in the U.S. since Trump and Israel launched attacks on Iran — amount to “peanuts.” He previously said he does not consider Americans’ personal finances “even a little bit” when mulling his options on the war.

All of that comes as Trump badgers Congress to spend $1 billion on his White House ballroom project and allocate $1.8 billion to pay restitution to people who believe they were prosecuted for political purposes — potentially including those who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

It’s a cascade that Republicans in every battleground House district, Senate election or statewide contest will have to navigate in the fall.

And now Trump's adminstration is going to Congress to beg for more money to fight "Trump's War," how do you think the voter will think about paying for a war nobody wanted?

Scoop: Trump's top MAGA advisers gather to plot midterms

Axios

Marc Caputo

July 21, 2026

President Trump's top political advisers inside and outside of the White House are meeting Tuesday afternoon to review polling, their messaging and strategy ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.

Why it matters: Trump's super PAC and the Republican National Committee are sitting on about $530 million, and now his team is figuring out how, when and where to deploy it.

That doesn't include what insiders say is hundreds of millions of dollars more in Trump's dark-money political nonprofit, Securing American Greatness.

The New York Times said, that Trump created what it called a "pardon industry," in which people with White House connections accepted payments from wealthy clients seeking clemency. The Times also highlighted that many beneficiaries were politically connected or wealthy.

Reuters reported...

Days before granting him a pardon in March of last year, President Donald Trump phoned Trevor Milton, an electric-vehicle entrepreneur and Republican donor who was convicted of defrauding investors of more than $660 million.

[...]

Reuters reviewed thousands of records to document a cast of characters involved in pardons or commutations granted by Trump since he returned to the presidency. Using public databases and artificial intelligence to help search, compile and analyze the records, reporters identified many of the recipients, their advocates and Trump administration insiders involved in clemency for more than 1,700 people since January 2025. The review found:

• 96% of Trump’s second-term clemency grants have gone to recipients who didn’t fulfill longstanding DOJ guidelines for such requests. Past presidents on occasion have sidestepped those rules before. But fewer than 1% of those who received clemency during the Biden administration and just 14% of recipients in Trump’s first presidency failed to meet the guidelines.
• Reuters identified 290 advocates, or influencers, who publicly or privately helped secure clemency for 197 recipients. Because some of the advocates worked on behalf of multiple candidates, their efforts at times overlapped, representing 624 different acts of influence. Among the influencers, 73 helped secure more than one pardon or sentence commutation. Brett Tolman, a former U.S. attorney now in private practice in Utah, has been involved in at least 12 pardons or commutations. Roger Stone, a veteran political consultant and longtime Trump confidant, had a hand in at least five.
• Of the influencers identified by Reuters, at least 110 are known Trump allies. Eleven of those received clemency themselves from Trump during his first term. High-profile advocates and pardon recipients include Stone and Angela Stanton King, a conservative author and campaign advisor to Kennedy before he ditched his 2024 run for the presidency and backed Trump. 
• Six people familiar with recent clemency acts said intermediaries with proven access to Trump’s entourage can charge as much as $2 million for their services. Reuters, however, couldn’t establish how much each advisor it identified had charged for help with a given pardon.

Reuters went on to report,

According to Federal Election Commission records, 10 of the recipients, influencers and companies they ran – including Milton, the EV entrepreneur – donated a total of more than $10 million to Trump-related political coffers, both before and after clemency decisions. Others, including a Florida man convicted of stealing fishing gear used to trap sharks for research, benefitted when political interest groups espoused their causes.

Compared with the past, “there’s nothing other than money, praise, partisanship and relationships that dictates who gets pardons,” said Ty Cobb, a White House counsel during the first Trump administration who is now a private attorney in South Carolina.

So now all that money is making its way into the mid-terms from pardons and other dubious sources.

Pardons For Sale! Inquire Within.

Has Trump family created a new business... pardons. Donate and receive a pardon. It is being questioned by the media and Congress. Trump has refined pardons to an art form and it is raising eyebrows.

Trump Extends Pardons to Companies, Echoing a 17th Century King

Bloomberg

Ava Benny-Morrison

Tue, July 21, 2026

Ryan LaLone received a pardon this month for a conviction tied to tampering with diesel emissions systems. Just as importantly, so did his company.

The twin reprieves from President Donald Trump enabled LaLone to clear his name and erase a $750,000 fine for his Michigan trucking-parts shop. They also made him the beneficiary of an unprecedented expansion of White House clemency power, a move tracing back to England's King Charles II.

Since taking office for the second time, Trump has become the first modern US president to issue pardons for companies, from a Middle America auto supplier to a crypto platform and a media startup. The clemency grants have wiped out almost $200 million in financial penalties, some of which were destined for victims of wrongdoing.

The pardons underscore Trump's broader willingness to blow past the boundaries of executive authority in a second term that has been far less constrained by political and legal norms. He has granted clemency to almost 1,700 people in the past 18 months, far outpacing his predecessors, often benefiting political supporters or people who claim to be victims of legal weaponization.

But were "donations" required? Congress is looking into it.

How Trump Has Exploited Pardons and Clemency to Reward Allies and Supporters

ProPublica

by Jeremy Kohler

November 12, 2025

The beneficiaries of President Donald Trump’s mercy in his second term have mostly been people with access to the president or his inner circle. Those who have followed the rules set out by the Department of Justice, meanwhile, are still waiting.

[...]

“If you’re a donor or political supporter, you move to the front of the line,” said Jim Hux, a lawyer representing a Missouri man seeking a pardon for tax crimes he committed two decades ago. He said his client has “led a model life” since finishing his sentence and fits the other criteria the Justice Department says it looks for.

Cha Ching!

Martin’s dual role was a sign that pardons had become more overt political weapons. He pledged to scrutinize Biden-era pardons and review what he described as a “weaponized” justice system. After Trump pardoned Scott Jenkins, a sheriff in Virginia and a longtime supporter convicted of taking bribes for political favors, Martin posted on X, “No MAGA left behind.”

NOTUS reported that,

At least one lobbyist-assisted person was successful in securing a Trump pardon: Joseph Schwartz, a former nursing home executive who was sentenced in April 2025 to three years in prison for his role in a $38 million tax-fraud scheme.

[...]

The day before Trump signed Schwartz’s pardon on Nov. 14, Merkava Strategies Corporation’s Josh Nass registered to lobby for Schwartz. Nass reported receiving $100,000 during the fourth quarter for work on “advocacy concerning executive clemency and post-conviction relief, including federal presidential pardon advocacy and subsequent efforts to obtain expedited parole and state-level relief in Arkansas.”

Cha Ching!

The Guardian wrote,

 A New York lobbyist and attorney connected to a presidential pardon issued by Donald Trump in November has been charged with attempting to extort money from a former client and the client’s son over an alleged $500,000 debt.

Joshua Nass, 34, was arrested on Friday after being charged in federal court in Brooklyn with attempted Hobbs Act extortion. US justice department prosecutors contend that Nass threatened a client for payment that he claimed he was owed for his services.

Nass is alleged to have provided an unnamed individual with a phone number as well as addresses while instructing the individual to visit the client at his home. It was an effort to intimidate the client into paying up, as prosecutors put it.

A real nice guy...

A Trump-linked firm is lobbying for pardons. Its first client already paid $500,000.

CBS News

By Gabe Kaminsky

June 24, 2026

When President Trump returned to power, a group of his former campaign and administration officials started a federal lobbying practice. Mo Strategies, which has registered an array of corporate clients, is now expanding into the newly lucrative world of pardons.

Business is booming.

The Trump-linked firm has signed on to lobby for the law firm Blessinger Legal in Northern Virginia for "immigration and pardon-related discussions," federal lobbying disclosures in late May show. The engagement has already yielded the firm $500,000 in income, and more work is expected, Marty Obst, president of Mo Strategies, said in an interview.

The Democrats are holding hearings on the corruption... Spokane - Review wrote;

Two Democratic members of Congress on Monday pressed the administration of President Donald Trump to retain communication records related to pardons granted to recipients including an electric-vehicle manufacturer found guilty of defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of ​dollars. 

Senator Peter Welch, a Judiciary Committee member from Vermont, and Congressman Dave Min, an Oversight Committee member from California, made the request to determine whether “improper considerations, including quid pro quo ⁠or ‘pay-to-play’ dynamics, may have affected the clemency process,” they wrote in letters to the White House, Justice Department and ‌U.S. Secret Service. 

The two lawmakers, citing coverage by Reuters ​and other media, in the letters reviewed by the news agency said they have been looking into the administration’s clemency efforts, which include pardons and commutations of sentences. They requested that all records be retained for 17 specific clemency recipients, including Trevor ⁠Milton, a businessman who was convicted in relation to a ‌startup he ran touting electric ‌vehicles that never became operational. 

Last week a Reuters investigation found that 96% of Trump’s clemencies this term have gone to candidates, including Milton, ⁠who didn’t meet longstanding Justice Department guidelines for pardons. In response to questions from Reuters, a spokesperson for Milton criticized his conviction and said it had been ‌politically motivated by prosecutors during the ‌administration of President Joe Biden. The spokesperson didn’t respond to a question about the letters from the lawmakers.

You want to bet that they will be stonewalled by the White House? Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro from Connecticut wrote:

Pay to Play: Trump’s Record of Corruption

We are currently witnessing corruption as we have never seen before under President Trump. President Trump ran his campaign promising to fight for working— and middle-class Americans. He said he would bring costs down on Day 1. Instead, he has weaponized the office of the President to enrich himself and his family.

The Appropriations Committee is charged with making sure departments are spending taxpayer dollars wisely and following the law. My office has compiled a list of this gross display of corruption so far. 

Trump’s Get Out of Jail Free Card

Multiple news outlets have reported on the Trump Administration’s practice of receiving pay in exchange for pardons or clemency for millionaire and billionaire criminals, including, for example, Trevor Milton, who was pardoned in March 2025 after pouring nearly $2 million into pro-Trump political committees in 2024.

In another case, Changpeng Zhao the founder of Binance pleaded guilty to money laundering and was subsequently pardoned last October after the company he founded took steps that effectively enriched the Trump family with hundreds of millions of dollars. 

Four large players in the cryptocurrency industry—Robinhood Markets, Coinbase, Ripple, and Kraken—each made donations ranging from $1 to $5 million to Trump’s 2025 inaugural fund.  

Then in the early months of the Trump Administration, these companies had Securities and Exchange Commission cases against them dismissed, and the Justice Department disbanded a crypto crimes task force.

Cha Ching!

If there is a buck to make off of the Iran war... the Trump family is right there in line.

Another company called Powerus, backed by President Trump’s two oldest sons, is selling drone interceptors to Persian Gulf countries that are under attack by Iran and thus dependent on the U.S. military that is being led by President Trump.

You know there will be a judgement day for the Trumps but only if we win in November. 

Manipulation

Manipulation!

That is what the Republicans count on.

Definitions:

Communism

noun

1

or Communism

a: a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism

Note: This doctrine was the official ideology of the Soviet Union.

b: a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production

c: a final stage of society in Marxist theory in which the state has withered away and economic goods are distributed equitably

d: communist systems collectively

2

a: a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed

b: a theory advocating elimination of private property

Socialism

noun

1

a: any of various egalitarian economic and political theories or movements advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods

2

a: a system of society or of group living in which there is no private property

b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state

3

a: a stage of society in Marxist theory that is transitional between capitalism and communism (see communism sense 2c) and is distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

Do you see the difference?

Trump twists ‘communist’ label in Red Scare-style attacks on Democrats, experts say

Cronkite News.

by Hayli Griffin and Emma Whitney

July 14, 2026

A specter is haunting the country, according to President Donald Trump. 

Decades after the Soviet Union collapsed, Trump is warning Americans that communism is rearing its head domestically, citing gains by self-described democratic socialists in Democratic Party strongholds.

 “America will never be a communist country. Won’t happen,” Trump said in his Fourth of July speech on the National Mall, in one of the dozens of recent references he has made in recent weeks as he paints Democrats as radical in the run-up to the midterm elections.

“It’s like a cancer. You’ve got to cut it out. … Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America. We’re not going to let it happen,” he said.

In New York City, two democratic socialists, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez, won congressional nominations in the June 23 Democratic primaries, as did candidates for seven downballot offices who were backed by the Democratic Socialists of America.

Do you know why he is doing this?

Because many people mix up, or don’t know, the difference between Socialism and Communism. The word “Communism” strikes fear in many people’s minds… “Duck and cover!” “The Evil Empire!” “The Cuban Missile Crisis!”

Political experts say Trump’s rhetoric may resonate with his supporters but he is stretching the term communist far beyond its true meaning.

“Communism” evokes images of bread lines, gulags and secret police like Stalin-era USSR, Mao-era China or Castro-era Cuba.

But I would say the label applies to Trump! Um… remember the photos of the raids by ICE and CBP, with agents dressed in paramilitary gear? Do you remember the photos of ICE agents dragging out a 70-year-old man in his underwear? I would think that Trump would want to keep those images out of the news when he is calling people “communist”!

BBC News said back during the November 2025 elections: Trump says it’s “communism or common sense” after Democrat Mamdani wins NYC mayoral election. Trump and his allies have also called the Democrats “Marxist” and the “radical left!”

The question is: What is this leading up to?

Trump seems to escalate things, so we have to wonder where he is leading us. Somehow, this all sounds nefarious… as if something evil is behind it.

A Strategic Blunder

Did Trump's legal team just make a misstep? When you sue someone there is what is called "Discovery" where both sides can subpoena records.

Judge rules Trump must hand over records sought by BBC in defamation case

BBC News

Tom Bateman

July 21, 2026

A judge in Florida has ruled President Donald Trump must hand over financial records sought by the BBC as it defends itself in his $10bn (£7.5bn) defamation lawsuit.

The order came during the first hearing in the case, in which the US president is suing the corporation over an episode of Panorama that edited together different sections of his speech on the day of the US Capitol riot on 6 January 2021.

Judge Enjoliqué Lett granted a motion by the BBC's legal team to compel the release of financial records held by the Donald J Trump Revocable Trust, which he created to manage his businesses while he is president.

The judge's ruling at Tuesday's hearing in Miami can still be appealed.

However, it amounts to a partial success in the BBC's attempt to force Trump to provide evidence for his claim of financial loss due to the Panorama edit.

So that means Trump business records are open for discovery.

Stop & Think.

With abortion and trans healthcare, Republicans are trying to go after citizens of their home state for getting medical care that is illegal in their state, but completely legal where it was performed! How is that legal?

Does that mean if you go to another state to gamble in a casino, your home state can arrest you for gambling? I think not. Does that mean if you go to another state to smoke pot, they can arrest you when you come back—even if you didn't bring any weed back and just smoked it there?

Now stop and think: why do Republicans think it's okay to do this for abortions and trans healthcare?

Here is what they claim: it's a conspiracy because you planned the abortion while still inside their state, where it is illegal. But by that logic, if a senior citizens' group plans a bus trip from a state where gambling is illegal to a state with legal casinos, are they committing a conspiracy, too? Can you imagine if Utah arrested senior citizens for a trip to Las Vegas?

AG: state can prosecute those who help women travel for abortions

Alabama Daily News

AP 

September 3, 2023

Alabama’s attorney general argued in a court filing that the state has the authority to bring conspiracy charges against groups who help women travel to another state for an abortion.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office made the assertion in a Monday motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by an abortion assistance fund and others arguing such prosecutions would be unconstitutional. The groups are seeking a legal ruling clarifying that Alabama can’t prosecute people for providing financial, appointment or travel assistance for an Alabama woman to obtain an abortion in another state.

Alabama bans abortion at any stage of pregnancy. Marshall argued while it’s legal for a woman to travel out of state for an abortion, he suggested groups that help her do so could face prosecution.

You see how they are twisting the law. The person receiving the abortion or trans healthcare isn't directly arrested, but everyone who helped them can be prosecuted for aiding and abetting a felony. That is even more sinister—parents could be arrested just for seeking healthcare for their children.

That is why shield laws, like Connecticut’s, are so important. But you can also see the dangers with Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs). In Connecticut, data from these license plate readers could be used to track us. Even though Connecticut law requires a court order to dig through that data, there have been numerous reports that the private companies managing the system have given information to ICE and CBP without a court order.

The U.S. Constitution should offer protection through the Interstate Commerce Clause, the Full Faith and Credit Clause, and the Privileges and Immunities Clause.

Then, of course, if the courts step in and ban states from prosecuting people who travel out of state for healthcare, Republicans will just blame it on an "activist" court. For conservatives, it's a win-win situation.

 

The Best Government Money Can Buy

You know that slush fund of 1776 billion dollars that Trump is trying to create... the Republicans said, "Not so fast!"

Where's our cut?

House Republicans Make Themselves Eligible for Trump’s $1.8 Billion Slush Fund, Reject Levin Amendment to Block Payouts to Elected Officials

During a House Appropriations Committee markup, Rep. Mike Levin (CA-49) introduced an amendment to prevent federal elected officials from receiving any money from the U.S. Treasury Judgment Fund in response to the creation of President Trump’s $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” The amendment was rejected by Republicans on the Appropriations Committee, who voted to allow themselves to receive money from the fund.

Recently, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the establishment of an “Anti-Weaponization Fund” as part of the settlement to end President Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS. The Judgment Fund would transfer nearly $1.8 billion to the slush fund to benefit President Trump’s allies, including Senators who believe they were victim to government weaponization and January 6th insurrectionists who attacked U.S. Capitol police officers. The U.S. Attorney General would be responsible for appointing a five-person commission to administer the payouts, and the President can fire the commissioners at any time.

But the Republicans amendment was defeated. They wanted in on the deal.

It Is Getting Tiring

Back in the 1950s, we had "Duck and Cover."

With the rise of the fear of communism, and as always, the Republicans used that fear. The leader of the fear wagon was Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose hatred of anything "communist" was, well, like waving a red flag at a bull.

During the anti-communist fervor of the McCarthy era, we have "In God We Trust" on our currency and "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.

And now we have a president waving the "Red Flag!" So why now? Why are the Republicans scared? They're scared about the midterm elections, and as a result they are creating their own "Red Scare." The problem is that it is socialism, not communism. However, in the minds of many Republicans, they conflate the two.

Trump attacks Democrats as ‘godless communists’ in test of midterms message

President seizes on wins by Mamdani-backed candidates to warn darkly of threat to ‘traditional American way of life’

The Guardian

David Smith in Washington

Fri 26 Jun 2026

Donald Trump has previewed a Republican strategy for the midterm elections, seizing on a progressive sweep in New York to portray Democrats as “godless communists” who pose an existential threat to the nation.

The US president, who was a child during the “red scare”, seized on wins by democratic socialists backed by the mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, to stoke fears that the Democratic party has embraced extremism that could lead to the violent persecution of Christians.

On Friday, Trump was addressing religious conservatives at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s annual Road to Majority conference at the Washington Hilton hotel – his first appearance there since April, when he was rushed off stage after an assassination attempt at the White House correspondents’ dinner.

He focused on Tuesday’s Democratic primary election results in New York, where three leftwing candidates endorsed by Mamdani, a Democratic socialist who is the city’s first Muslim mayor, upset incumbent or establishment rivals.

[...]

Preaching to a religious right audience, Trump emphasised: “All communists are godless. They do not believe in God … These ruthless communists attack all religions, but in particular Christianity. They always do. They’re after Christianity more than any other religion.” Trump noted the US military had intervened in Nigeria to save Christian populations who had been persecuted. Nigeria is not a communist country.

Is Trump pulling out the old Mein Kampf playbook? 

• Demonize minorities ✓
• Blame the Communists ✓
• Wave the religious flag ✓

PolitiFact writes,

What Trump’s communism claims miss about Democrats and democratic socialists

Marking the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, President Donald Trump gave a July Fourth speech about “freedom’s triumph over tyranny, liberty’s conquest over oppression, and the enduring victory of the American spirit.”

Then he turned his attention to communism.

“Communism is a loser and it always will be,” the president said in his late-night address on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. “Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America. We’re not gonna let it happen.”

In the days leading up to the event, he said Democrats are communists.

The Democratic Party is “becoming a communist party,” Trump said June 26 at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference. “These are not social Dumocrats, these are hardcore, godless communists. They’re godless communists.”

Hmm... I wonder what page that is on in Mein Kampf?

This isn’t a new line of attack for Trump and Republicans; they have previously falsely labeled Democrats as communists, including former Vice President Kamala Harris.

He keeps bring it up and MAGA and Christian Nationalist base gobble it right up! The Cato Institute reported that,

Capitalism (52%) is viewed somewhat more favorably than socialism (37%). However, people are evenly divided on socialism, with equal shares who are favorable and unfavorable. Gen Z stands out with more who are supportive of socialism (53%) than capitalism (45%). The survey found the “Democratic Socialist” label can both help and harm a candidate about equally. While 39% said they’d be more likely to vote for a Democratic Socialist candidate, 40% said they’d be less likely, and 22% weren’t sure either way. Democrats (61%) and Gen Z (51%) reported they’d be likely to vote for a candidate with the Democratic Socialist label.

You know what... voters are starting to see that Trump's way, and the Republicans' way, is the way of a new Bolshevik Party—the party of the elites.

The question is: Do voters elect a candidate to serve them, or to serve the party's elites?