Happy 250: Trump Says Communism Is America’s Next Enemy

President Donald Trump’s speech at Mount Rushmore last week identified what makes America great—and that communism is the rising ideology threatening American greatness. 

On the eve of America’s 250th anniversary, the president known for his love of “American exceptionalism” delivered a speech with familiar sentiments about the beauty of our nation. But he included a new warning: Communism is on the rise, and it is fundamentally opposed to American freedom.

“You can be loyal to Karl Marx, or you can be loyal to America,” Trump said. “You can be a communist, or you can be a patriot. You cannot be both.”

Trump’s speech comes after over 30 candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America have advanced in their primary contests, including Janeese Lewis George for Washington, D.C. mayor, Claire Valdez for New York state representative, and Melat Kiros for Colorado state congress.

The Left is all over Trump for his speech, claiming that he’s attacking communism because “he’s run out of cards,” and rushing to correct him for conflating socialism and communism. 

CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins pushed back against the president in her Friday night show with the line that Democratic socialism “is not communism.” The Associated Press published a fact check, which cited “experts” who stated that his claims are “off base”: Democrats are far from supporting communist ideals.

Fact check, AP. 

Vladimir Lenin himself, the leader of the Bolshevik revolution and first head of the communist Soviet Union, conflated the two ideologies, saying that the beginnings of a communist social order are “usually called socialism, but termed by Marx the first phase of communism.”

The experts in AP’s “fact check” were correct in saying that no candidate of the U.S. Communist Party has ever been elected to state or federal office. But Trump’s seeing the rise in socialism and knows what’s coming next.

Bernie Sanders is the iconic socialist who’s been in federal office longer than my generation has been alive. He’s the guy whose presidential fundraising video blew up into “I am once again asking” memes when I was in high school.

But it’s not just Bernie anymore. It’s dozens of candidates who are in their 20s and 30s—the perfect age to appeal to the next generation of voters.

And it’s up to young voters to decide if socialism will spread, or if they will preserve American liberty. As the socialist agenda to place more and more responsibility in the hands of the government unfolds, radical communism will be more imaginable.

In this milestone year for America, President Trump’s speech echoes the words of Benjamin Franklin: “A republic, if you can keep it.”

“Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty,” Trump said. “It is the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, or even 9/11. We’re not going to let this happen to us. Believe me, we’re not letting it happen, because communism is the enemy of free people everywhere—everywhere in the world.”

The United States remained heavily involved in Europe to limit the control of the communist Soviet Union over people in eastern Europe. We have kept a distance from communist China because the Chinese Communist Party has shown that it seeks the downfall of America.

So now that traces of communism are emerging in America, the president who is witnessing its rise is preparing the American people to fight within their own country for freedom.

Trump made it clear that celebrating America isn’t just about commemorating what we’ve done with a fireworks show larger than any in history. It’s not enough to thank the 107-year-old veteran who fought for freedom on D-Day.

That freedom must be preserved for the future. And the American people deserve a warning.

Trump’s speech evinces the same sentiment that led Congress to bury a time capsule beneath Independence Hall with artifacts from all 50 states: the hope that America will exist for generations to come.

But it’s the responsibility of my generation to begin the fight to preserve America for the next 250 years. Trump just identified what we need to prepare for.