Version imprimableAt the same time, Trump’s Justice Department has indicted and convicted several leftist activists—opponents of ICE or supporters of Palestine— on felony charges resulting in them being sentenced to years and even decades in prison. The combination of the new anti-communist rhetoric and the increased repression of the left, under the guise that the government is fighting a domestic terrorist organization called antifa, suggest that we may be entering a new anti-communist era of repression such as those of the 1920s and 1950s. If so, the entire left will be in danger. And of course, it suggests we may be witnessing another step from authoritarianism to neofascism.
In his speeches, Trump stated more than once that the United States “is the greatest civilization in human history.” And communism, he said, “is the greatest threat to our country,” a greater threat than the two world wars and the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on New York and Washington, D.C.
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…Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty.
Trump didn’t mention DSA, the left group actually winning elections but said instead that the problem was the Communist Party, “made up of illegal immigrants, criminals and everybody that doesn’t want to work.” In response, CPUSA Co-chair Rossana Cambron said, “MAGA [Trump’s Make America Great Again movement] is going to lose the midterms, and Trump’s getting desperate.”
Trump alleged that the Democratic Party had become Communist. “They are becoming a Communist party – not social democrats. They are core communists.”
There have been two previous Red Scares in the United States, one in the 1920s and the other in the 1950s. The first Red Scare was a result of the Russian Revolution of 1917 that brought the Communists to power, a wave of industrial strikes, and in 1919 a series of anarchist bombings. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer organized raids that led to the arrest of 3,000 people and the deportation of hundreds. The movement was devastating to the Industrial Workers of the World, the Socialist Party, and the newly formed Communist Party.
The second Red Scare in the 1950 was driven in large part by Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy who made claims of widespread Communist Party spies’ penetration of the U.S. State Department. McCarthy, who was chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations launched highly publicized investigations into alleged Communist infiltration of federal agencies, universities, and the U.S. Army. Some 500 people were called to testify and another several hundred before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Many people called before these committees lost their jobs or were evicted from their homes and were blacklisted. The Communist Party was virtually outlawed and CP leaders were imprisoned.
The previous two Red Scares strengthened right-wingers in both the Democratic and Republican Parties and drove many leftists underground or out of the movement. While we don’t know what Trump’s Red Scare will do, it has to be seen as a serious threat to the left, to the unions, and to the social movements.
5 July 2026
