President Donald Trump came to Las Vegas on Wednesday to rally voters on the economy and tax relief. But, after a pivotal week for left-leaning candidates in Michigan and Wisconsin, he couldn’t help but turn to communism.
“You lose your home, you lose your apartment, and that’s where the communists will take us,” Trump said. “You got to nip it in the bud.”
The president’s broadsides at the Red Rocks Casino came during a nearly 75-minute rally, evoking repeated cheers from the audience. Trump diverged from his economic remarks multiple times, including minutes-long segments calling out this week’s main characters: Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who edged out moderate Rep. Haley Stevens by a narrow margin, and Wisconsin gubernatorial hopeful Francesca Hong, who went viral over old posts describing a hatred of Thanksgiving (and Christmas, and Halloween).
El-Sayed’s primary win was the latest example of left-wing challengers succeeding against more moderate, establishment-backed Democrats. It’s a shift that has coincided with a deepening party splinter since Trump entered office — and one Republicans hope to take advantage of during the summer campaign season by amplifying distrust of communism to push more centrist voters away from progressive candidates.
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El-Sayed’s victory makes that effort easier, Trump said Wednesday.
“The polls say we do better against the communists,” the president said. “So he won, and so I think I’m happy.”
Trump has been attacking communism for some time, but he gained fresh ammunition this week after more of Hong’s past commentary — including wanting to abolish Thanksgiving and voicing disdain for other holidays — circulated ahead of the state’s Aug. 11 primary.
A member of the Wisconsin General Assembly and the Democratic Socialists of America, Hong has also been criticized for past calls to abolish the police, among other left-wing positions. But her Turkey Day opinion — which Hong has since walked back, telling Politico on Wednesday that it’s actually her favorite holiday — was a welcome talking point and easy target for Republicans. Wisconsin Rep. Tom Tiffany’s campaign even reposted comments from Hong’s own press team.
Trump blasted her on Wednesday as he called communism “the greatest threat to our country,” including both World Wars, Pearl Harbor and 9/11.
“And in Wisconsin, the communists have a woman who said that the holiday of Thanksgiving should be immediately abolished, and the police — the police only exist to, quote, ‘uphold white supremacy,’” Trump said, calling Hong a “lunatic.” “We can’t let them get into office.”
Republicans have a lower opinion of socialism than Democrats, who are the only partisan group to view the ideology more positively than capitalism, a 2025 Gallup poll found. Those dynamics have been present in Michigan and Wisconsin’s primaries this month: Multiple polls show Hong with a dominant lead in the primary race, and surveys conducted prior to the Thanksgiving comments’ resurfacing showed her virtually tied with Tiffany for the general election. And El-Sayed will face Republican Mike Rogers, who posted a video calling his opponent a “radical leftist” on Wednesday.
“But everyone, every time this has happened ... you go through squalor. And add the word again: filth, crime, death, destruction, embarrassment,” Trump said. “When I watch Abdul — he’s full of shit.”
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