Trump Criticizes Michigan’s Democratic Senate Nominee
President Donald Trump intensified his criticism of Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed on Wednesday. Trump labeled the progressive candidate as deceitful and accused Democrats of supporting communism.
The comments followed El-Sayed’s narrow victory over Rep. Haley Stevens in the Michigan Democrat Senate primary. The race was called by The Associated Press early on Wednesday with El-Sayed winning by a slim margin of less than one percentage point. He will oppose Republican Mike Rogers in November to fill the seat of retiring Senator Gary Peters.
During a speech in Las Vegas, Trump spent several minutes condemning democratic socialist candidates. He argued they are promoting communist ideologies, labeling communism as the greatest threat to the United States.
“These people are dangerous. They’re crazy, and we can’t let them get into office,” Trump said. “Communism is the greatest threat to our country in its history, including even World War One, World War Two, Pearl Harbor, 9/11.”
The White House echoed Trump’s statement on social media, declaring, “Communism is the greatest threat to our country.”
Trump mocked potential outcomes of communist policies in America. “Would you like a free house? We’ll take one from your neighbor,” he said. “What they don’t say is at the end of the year, you’ll have nothing but death, poverty. You’ll have a life of hell.”
Trump pointed to Venezuela as a demonstration of communist policies in action. “Look at Venezuela, where it was a rich country 20 years ago,” Trump said. “Every time this has happened, you go through squalor, crime, death, destruction, embarrassment.”
El-Sayed’s victory provides Democrats with a progressive candidate in a key Senate race. Supported by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, El-Sayed campaigned for policies like Medicare for All and reducing military aid to Israel. Though he identifies as a capitalist and distances himself from the Democratic Socialists of America, Republicans often connect him to the socialist movement.
Trump revisited a frequent theme from his presidency’s second term. “If you remember, during my State of the Union speech, I made a strong statement. America will never be a socialist country,” he said. “I was right.”
Trump concluded with a promise to counter the Democratic Party’s shift toward socialism. “Together we will defeat communism, socialism, and Marxism in America once and for all,” he stated.