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He used a rhetorical point to show how easy it is to fool voters with left-wing populist promises.
Donald Trump is not a fan of communism.
He is actively using communism as a warning to the American population, and according to a July 8 report from Reuters, he warned against communism no less than 81 times in just two weeks.
According to Reuters, a number of left-wing Democratic wins in primary contests on June 23 was the accelerant, and since then Trump has painted a picture of a communism coming to take over America, if the Republicans lose control of the Senate at the midterms.
With all of this in mind, you’d probably expect Trump to be very much against communism and not wanting to be associated with it – even less one of the most famous communists in history, Vladimir Lenin.
But Donald Trump would make a great communist. He would actually be one of the best. At least according to himself.
Right up there with Lenin
During a press conference at the NATO summit last week, a reporter asked the president:
“You’ve been issuing a wakeup call to Americans at home about the dangers of communism and now you’re speaking on the world stage. What’s your message to people both living under communist and socialist regimes, but also people living under democracies like in Europe and America who might not have realized how close communism has come to home?”
You’d then expect Trump to say something along the lines of “hold out” or “it will get better” or tell people to fight the system from within.
Instead he went in a very different direction, saying:
“I want to get the word out because what’s forming is a communism in the country and communism’s easy to sell. I would be the greatest communist in history. I’d be right up there with Lenin. I’d be I’d be as good as anybody.”
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A rhetorical trick
It is however obvious, that Trump did not endorse communism, but instead used it as a rhetorical point about how “easy” it is to fool people with left-wing populist promises.
After the quote mentioned above, he said:
“You’ve got free rent for the rest of your life. What they don’t say is that you’ll be living in squalor in 12 months. You’ve got a free house. Would anybody like to have a free house? We’ll take it away from somebody and give it to you.”
The US midterm elections are scheduled to take place in November.
