“[O]n the eve of this 250th anniversary of American heritage, we resolve and swear for all to hear that the citizens of the United States of America will vanquish communism quickly. . . we're not gonna let them take too long or too much of our time as they play their games and send them into exile. We will send them quickly away...." 

Donald Trump speaking at Mount Rushmore on July 3, 2026

These words are not just ignorant bombast spouted by Trump for electoral advantage, they set harsh political terms. Nor is this about something that “could happen” in the future. These are repressive threats and actions being worked on right now with political persecutions and surveillance of anyone who stands up against this regime. Trump is now lumping a whole range of opposition to his regime under the umbrella of a "communist threat from within"¹ even though most are the furthest thing from communist. 

This rampage is extremely dangerous. But since Trump wants to label everyone who stands against him as a communist, let's talk about what real communism actually is—and why the most urgent thing you can do is seriously dig into the new communism brought forward by the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian.

In his July 3 speech, Trump spewed:

Communism is the exact opposite of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It's death, tyranny, and the pursuit of evil. The godless communist morality states that anything is justified to bring about inhuman visions....

This, from a fascist pussy-grabbing, white supremacist monster who threatened to decimate an entire civilization, and who lies like he breathes—a tyrant who rules over, and was borne of, the capitalist system driven by exploitation and plunder. Communism IS the exact opposite of all that. 

As Bob Avakian (BA) wrote recently, communism is aiming for "emancipation from all relations of exploitation and oppression, moving beyond all social inequality. And the means and methods of the communist revolution must be in line with and an expression of that basic orientation." BA went on to emphasize: "The new communism thoroughly repudiates and is determined to root out of the communist movement the poisonous notion, and practice, that 'the ends justifies the means.' It is a bedrock principle of the new communism that the 'means' of this movement must flow from and be consistent with the fundamental 'ends' of abolishing all exploitation and oppression through revolution led on a scientific basis." (From FASCIST CRUELTY AND ATTACK ON EMPATHY VS. THE NEW COMMUNIST VIEW OF EMPATHY)

In this article, we will discuss three points that reveal: [1] the danger of Trump’s drive to consolidate a fascist America, aimed particularly right now at the Democrats yet with wider scope; [2] the specific threat of exile against the different levels of political opposition to Trump MAGA fascism; and [3] more on what communism actually is and why, right now, we are in a rare time when a revolution to emancipate humanity is more possible. 

* * * * * * * * * *

[1] Trump's Evil Specter of Communism—Prelude to Intensified Fascist Offensive

The immediate impetus for Trump raising the "evil specter" of communism is fear of losing the midterm congressional elections. He has used the election victories of social democrats running on the Democratic Party tickets to go after Marxism and the Democratic Socialists of America². New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as several other Democrats, are members or supporters of the DSA. Apparently just attacking them as Marxist and socialist has not been effective enough so Trump and the MAGA Republican machine are now going full out with anti-communist “red scare”³ tactics. As one part of this, Trump mocks the Democratic Party establishment leaders as “Dumocrats” for not aggressively going after these so-called communists in their midst. 

Trump’s anti-communist attack got its biggest boost on his July 3rd speech in front of Mt. Rushmore as F35’s flew overhead at sunset with a crowd of the MAGA faithful.⁴ After opening his speech with a total whitewashing of America’s “greatness” he let loose with his diatribe. He refashioned the boogeyman of communism and communists as the immediate present danger—“a cancer. You got to cut it out. You got to cut it out fast.” He directly wielded this not just to attack Democrats running for office, but to set political terms to compel Congress to pass his “Save America Act.” This bill is a blatant fascist attempt to rig not only the upcoming midterms but all future elections so that Trump and the MAGA fascist movement can’t lose. (See “The Fascist Trump Regime Wages an All-Of-Government Offensive to Steal the Elections—What Will You Do?”) Trump said: “pass this Save America Act and get rid of the filibuster⁵ and we will not lose an election for 100 years. We do that, we're not going to lose an election for 100 years.”

Relishing the fascist audience at Mt. Rushmore, Trump ranted about his opponents among the rulers as well as all the undesirable people that MAGA fascism seeks to eliminate from American society. Trump had the fascist crowd shouting "100 years! 100 years!" which is reminiscent of the German Nazi's call for "A Thousand-Year Reich." Trump let loose against “illegal immigrants, criminals, and everybody that doesn't want to work.” He fueled the reactionary bigotry and fears of the crowd warning: “…a band of thieves, radicals and lunatics could come in and loot, pillage our nation.”

This demonization is both prelude to terror planned and a reinforcement of what is already underway: deadly serious moves to effectively destroy and/or neuter all opposition, including in the mainstream ruling class. Doing this is essential to bolting into place a fascist form of rule of the capitalist system that we live under—ruling through openly and thoroughly white supremacist, patriarchal Christian fascist theocracy. Bob Avakian has done decades of work to show how this fascist section of the ruling class with a social base of millions of delusional fanatics firmly believes and have been working to achieve this. They feel only their MAGA fascist form of rule can cohere U.S. society and fight to maintain U.S. international dominance against all rivals. To achieve this, the regime is moving fast to re-mold all the institutions of government and society. And they are wielding the repressive force of the state not just against the masses of people (as has been the normal form of rule in this capitalist-imperialist country), but against their opposition in what has been the “mainstream” ruling class. In Something Terrible, OR Something Truly Emancipating Bob Avakian put it this way:

The Republicans have become a fascist party—a party based on open and aggressive white supremacy, male supremacy and other oppressive relations—a party convinced that only it deserves to rule, moving to manipulate elections and suppress votes in order to gain and hold onto power, refusing to accept the outcome of elections it does not win, determined to gut and pervert “the rule of law,” trample on people’s rights, and adopt what amounts to an undisguised capitalist dictatorship, ready to use violence not only against masses of people but also against its rivals in the ruling class.

[2] Trump's Threat of Exile: Fascist Purification to Rid Society of Immigrants and People with Dissident Beliefs

The threat from Trump at Mt. Rushmore to “send them into exile… send them quickly away” is not just rhetoric. Already the regime has deported people to what amount to black box holes in far-flung remote places in the world where those deported don’t speak the language, and where there is little or no recourse for any legal process. All this is in defiance of international and U.S. law. In a new move, Politico reported that on July 15th Trump’s [in]Justice Department submitted a first ever application to the never before used Alien Terrorist Removal Court—which allows the government to quickly deport people it deems an “alien terrorist” in secret. The criteria for determining someone is an "alien terrorist" remains undefined, and the designation is to be determined by Trump’s Secretary of State or Attorney General. 

Trump has already threatened deportation of political rivals. Going into the mayoral race in NYC in 2025, Trump threatened the then mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani is a naturalized U.S. citizen of prominent Indian parents from Uganda. Trump threatened to “arrest Mamdani,” “to deport him,” and to “take over the country’s largest city if he wins....” “As President of the United States, I’m not going to let this Communist Lunatic destroy New York… I’ll save New York City...." 

At the same time, the dragnet of this anti-communism is aiming to persecute and suppress all resistance to their fascist program. This can also be used to particularly target actual communists who represent, and are organizing for, a system that is fundamentally opposed to capitalism-imperialism and the institutions that perpetuate that system. 

Trump’s anti-communist threats, playing on the pervasive anti-communism in America, are likely intended to advance new fascist measures that target individuals and organizations for their beliefs. Trump said communism is “an ideology of mass theft, mass control, mass lies, and mass murder….” This is pure bullshit. Nevertheless, take careful and serious note that Trump is targeting communism as an ideology for which those holding communist beliefs should be exiled—including potentially by stripping them of their citizenship. 

The full scope of what this regime intends is concentrated in a series of Presidential Memoranda and strategic statements beginning with NSPM-7 which states the following are grounds for being considered a domestic terrorist (a category that has not existed before). This includes: 

“…opposition to law and immigration enforcement; extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders; adherence to radical gender ideology, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, or anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; hostility towards traditional views on family, religion, and morality; and an elevation of violence to achieve policy outcomes…”

This gives the regime license to roundup, incarcerate, murder and intimidate millions of people who hold any of these beliefs, with exile a special punishment that has historically been used against "political enemies." Revcom.us has written more on NSPM-7 and other strategic fascist repressive policies—to find out more go here, here or here.

Every decent person—coming from diverse political perspectives—needs to come together now to actively resist every repressive move, defending every person and organization that comes under attack. And doing this as part of making real the demand of Refuse Fascism: Trump Must Go Now!

[3] The New Communism—The Way Out of the Madness to a Whole New World

Since Trump wants to go on a dangerous rampage labeling everyone he hates a communist, let's talk about what communism, today—the new communism—actually is. Communism is a science that enables you to understand all of reality. As BA has said:

…to dig beneath the surface, to discover the underlying mainsprings and causes of things, and arrive at an understanding of the fundamental problem and the actual solution. This means coming to the scientific understanding that we are living under a system, and what that system actually is (the system of capitalism-imperialism); working to grasp the deeper relations and dynamics of this system and how this is setting the framework for how different sections of society spontaneously think and react to events in society and the world; and what is the possible way forward to transforming all of this in the interests of the masses of humanity and ultimately humanity as a whole.

To move beyond capitalism requires a real revolution. A revolution to overthrow this system, clearing the ground for a new socialist republic. The Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by BA, provides the blueprint for a society where we could collectively go to work to thoroughly uproot all forms of exploitation and oppression, on the road to a communist world where humanity could flourish and be fit caretakers of the earth.

Trump knows nothing about communism, but the reality is that communism represents the only real resolution to the system of capitalism-imperialism that has given rise to this fascist nightmare. The lies that Trump speaks about communism would be laughable except for the fact that they play off the ocean of lies that have been drummed into the American people.

People have no idea of what the first communist states accomplished, first in the Soviet Union (from 1917 to the mid-50s) and then in China (from 1949 to 1976) before socialism was defeated. The brainwash of 50 years and more from this system has robbed people of the legacy of these societies where people were inspired to work to overcome millennia of oppression. There were unrelenting attacks against these societies, as well as real difficulties they faced. And, there were serious and grievous shortcomings that emerged in the short lives of these societies… but [a] they were pathbreaking in lifting off the chains of oppression for billions of people, and [b] what is most decisive for the future, the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian has synthesized lessons from those first experiences, and human society more broadly, developing the new communism. The new communism is building on this first stage of communist revolution leaping beyond what was understood and accomplished in those first experiences. In its “consistently and thoroughly scientific approach to reality in general and in particular to the revolutionary struggle to overturn and uproot all systems and relations of exploitation and oppression and advance to a communist world” there is now a way forward beyond the all the misery and destruction that is today’s world. 

Last fall, Bob Avakian published a work for this time: HUMANITY ON THE BRINK: A Forced March into the Abyss, or Forging a Way Forward Out of the Madness? The title of this work poses a crucial choice and challenge. It really is one or the other. Dare to take the challenge and the responsibility. 

In Humanity on the Brink, BA gets into how the current acute political crisis in this country—with two countries within one border, and the rulers irreconcilably divided—could create a rare situation where revolution, even in this powerful country, has become more possible. 

There will be no revolution for the emancipation of humanity without revolutionary theory. Without a scientific approach to understanding and changing the world, it will stay on the path towards continued horrors, if not extinction. From Humanity on the Brink: 

We are now at the point where it is more and more urgently necessary to move beyond this whole monstrous system—beyond a situation where people are forced to struggle just for individual survival, with everyone compelled to be in competition and conflict with others, and the masses of people everywhere are chained down by outmoded oppressive relations, while the future, and the very existence, of humanity is increasingly endangered. 

And it is possible now to move beyond all this.