WASHINGTON: President Trump pushed back against “Communists” after several candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani secured major wins in House primary races on Tuesday.
“America the Beautiful will NEVER be a Communist Country!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social early on Wednesday, after several Mamdani-backed candidates came out on top.
These candidates include democratic socialists Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier and the mayor’s former opponent, progressive Brad Lander.
The president has often inaccurately conflated democratic socialism with communism, particularly in relation to Mamdani’s recent campaign. Trump derided him throughout his campaign as an “100pc Communist Lunatic” and has claimed that his policies are “destroying New York.”
Democratic socialism and communism are distinctly separate ideologies. While the latter ideology pushes for the collective ownership of property, democratic socialism focuses on government investment in workers, according to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
The president specifically criticised the New York mayor in a Truth Social post later Wednesday morning. “Mayor Mamdani pulled through 3 solid Communists, and has received loud and universal applause from the Fake News Media,” he wrote. “Congratulations Mr Mayor!”
Trump also touted his endorsement records and Republican victories on Tuesday in states like South Carolina. “I went 16-0 last night, helping to elect wonderful American Patriots, and the Media doesn’t say a word,” he wrote. “Over the last two years, my endorsement has netted 259 Primary WINS, and almost no losses, with Zero media attention!!!” New York City’s chapter of the DSA celebrated Valdez’s and Avila Chevalier’s wins in social media posts on Tuesday evening. After Chevalier ousted incumbent Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the state party declared, “SOCIALISM WINS UPTOWN!”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, a leader in the democratic socialist and progressive movements, celebrated Lander’s and Valdez’s “landslide victories” in a statement shared online.
“Together, we are creating a grassroots progressive movement that will defeat the Oligarchs,” he wrote on social platform X.
‘Democratic Socialist Party’
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani scored three major primary wins in his attempt to remake the Democratic Party into a democratic socialist force on Tuesday. Mamdani’s efforts to expand the democratic socialist base in the US follow a decade-long effort that was spurred on by Senator Bernie Sanders’ surprisingly popular 2016 presidential campaign and his efforts to nurture a new generation of democratic socialist leaders. But some analysts and former officials say it is also in response to progressive Democratic voters’ anger at President Donald Trump’s agenda and governing style, and at the Biden administration’s backing of Israel’s war in Gaza.
“Energy on the far right ignites energy on the far left. Politics is reactive,” said Steve Israel, a former US House member from New York who late in his congressional career ran an operation to elect more Democrats.
For months after Mamdani won his 2025 primary election, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries was dogged by reporters asking whether he would endorse his fellow New Yorker. Jeffries did so, but kept everyone guessing until just 11 days before the general election.
Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2026