McCarthyism Smokescreen: Trump’s National Socialism
H. Scott Prosterman 07/09/2026
Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Convicted felon Donald Trump is trotting out the tired, failed themes of the 1950s House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAAC), invoking the spirit of Sen. Joe McCarthy and Roy Cohn. He is desperately trying to rerun the mass hysteria, which ruined many careers, destroyed families and led to suicides, such as that of Actor John Garfield. But Trump is going about this in such a primitive and clumsy manner, McCarthy and Cohn seem almost slick by comparison. Trump’s effort to equate all Democrats with Stalinism is a desperate grab at reviving old fictions, and an acknowledgement of the vapidness and absence of positive messaging he has brought to the Republican Party.
But many of the 77 million people who voted for Trump in 2024 are primed to buy into this ridiculous narrative, out of ignorance or out of their own bigotry.
The Democratic Party, needs to educate Americans about the difference between national socialism or fascism, Trump’s favored form of industrial policy, and democratic socialism. This task is all the more pressing given that only a little over half of Americans have a favorable view of capitalism in polling, and only 37 percent have a positive view of big business. Some 66 percent of Democrats have a positive view of socialism, and even 12 percent of Republicans do (more would if the Democrats were better and explaining what it does for people.)
Trump invoked the spirit of McCarthy and Cohn in his campaign speech at Mt. Rushmore, branding Democrats outright communists. As Zohran Mamdani remarked. this tactic shows that the ground is shifting under the feet of the plutocrats, since mere charges of socialism get no traction.
It is ironic that Trump should use this language, at a time when constantly sucks up to the old KGB operative Vladimir Putin to try to win his favor, and has sacrificed American and NATO interests in order to please him. When Stalinism decays, as we have seen repeatedly in the former Soviet bloc, it turns into forms of fascism. Perhaps when plutocratic naked capitalism decays, it too devolves into fascism, thus forming the common ground for Putin and Trump.
Democrats need to articulate how both Trump presidencies have introduced elements of classical fascism and, ironically, communist-style state ownership, to replace tenants of American democracy. They need to point out how his approval of any media merger as long as the corporations kowtow to him is a classic example of the state dominance of the corporate sector typical of fascism. Moroever, when Trump had the US government take a ten percent share in Intel, it was reminiscent of the way Mussolini’s Institute for Industrial Reconstruction took stakes in banks and industry in the late 1930s.
On the other hand, democratic socialism of the Nordic variety, the ideal emulated by Senator Bernie Sanders and the Dmeocratic Socialists of America, is a positive and its principles underly many American institutions. What is this “socialism?” Let’s start with fire and police protection, public schools and libraries, and the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. We call them expressways, freeways, beltways and loops; and 100’s of millions of people rely on them every day. Eisenhower envisioned this as a system to quickly move military personnel and equipment in a national emergency. The first section of was completed in 1942, and ran between Detroit and Willow Run Airport (“bomber plant”) in Ypsilanti, Michigan to transport defense workers to and from their jobs. Its divided highway system with room for expansion became the prototype for the today’s interstate system; from I-5 in California to I-95 along the east coast, and from I-10 in the south to I-94 across the northern border.
Regarding the virtues of democratic socialism, I’m just guessing that Trump never read Theory and Practice of Communism by R. Carew Hunt, . . . or any book for that fact. Socialism or social democracy is not Stalinism. The US has had elements of socialism in its government fabric from the beginning. Presidents Truman and Eisenhower would be branded as “socialists” today if they were running today.
Socialism is also disability insurance (SSDI), the National Weather Service, air traffic control system, the Veterans’ Administration and GI Bill. Richard Nixon gave many socialist gifts to America, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Occupation, Health & Safety Administration (OSHA), expanded food stamp and Medicare programs, and expanded Civil Rights legislation; which we now call Diversity-Equity-Inclusion (DEI) programs. Rather than cave into to Trump’s efforts to criminalize resistance to racism, as many corporations, law firms and universities have done; Democrats need to get loud and rude about how Nixon, who favored price controls and environmental legislation, was truer to conservative principles than Trump, whose bullying corporatism more resembles the mass movements in Europe between the wars.
Ronald Reagan viewed any tax as a socialist attack on US Democracy, and shot steroids into the nascent anti-tax movement of the 1970’s. Prop. 13 in California and Headley-Tisch in Michigan were the result, with social and economic casualties for many people and families. Eisenhower’s administration included many of the “socialist” gifts that Harry S Truman’s gave to America. Truman famously said in 1952, “Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance people have made for the last 20 years. Socialism is what they called public power . . . social security . . . farm price supports . . . bank deposit insurance . . . labor organizations, and anything else that helps people.” Oh BTW, Socialism also features a democratic voting system.
Thanks to the 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, Elon Musk and other billionaires were allowed to buy the presidency for Trump in 2024. Musk was buying the privilege of destroying many functional aspects of U.S. Government with the draconian Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Many of the nation’s most powerful billionaires have lined up in fealty to Trump, out of a combination of both fear and promise: The fear that he would destroy their enterprises if they didn’t go along, and the promise that they can have their way with greater consolidation of wealth if they did.
Public Domain. Via Picryl
Whereas socialism aims to distribute some of the country’s wealth and prevent corporate and personal hoarding; Trump and his allies are all about further consolidation of wealth and media and removing the distinction between personal and private wealth. Since Trump wants the state to dominate in the relationship with capital, he more resembles the fascists than the communists.
The Democrats’ best strategy would be to ridicule Trump’s invocation of McCarthy, and make it the front and center of the 2028 campaign; in order to illuminate Trump’s stealthy melding of fascism and state ownership of the means of production. They need to call out how Republicans are trying to consolidate power in their hands at every level of government from county commissions and school boards to the presidency. Democrats need to grow a sense of humor, and learn how to use it as a weapon. They need to illustrate how ludicrous it is for Trump to fall back on the tactics of Joe McCarthy, when he has embraced the worst elements of communism and fascism for his selfish benefit.
Just as Reagan compulsively accused his opponents of his own sins (“there they go again . .”) Trump is a would-be fascist dictator, i.e., a national socialist, pretending to be a guardian of American democracy.
Trump’s simple-minded strategy relies on reviving McCarthy’s Red Scare script in an attempt to equate 21st century progressive policies with the most destructive aspects of Stalinism. But socialist policies are not threats to American security and liberty, as Trump has proven himself to be. Aspects of socialism already permeate the US government. This includes affordable housing, universal healthcare, financial assistance for college students, and any program or life form NOT in service to him. That’s why he tried to brand it as something evil. If Democrats are to win this year and in 2028, they must offer a positive vision of what government can do for people, including for businesses, which benefit from government/ socialist infrastructure. They must stop running away from the S word.