The Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ironically dismissed President Donald Trump's warnings about an alleged communist threat in the United States, calling the argument "very silly" in comments to reporters in front of the Capitol on Wednesday.
The trigger was a speech by Trump on Wednesday at Wheeler High School in Marietta, Georgia, where he stated that "communism is the greatest threat to our country in its history, including even World War I and World War II, Pearl Harbor, and September 11."
When a journalist asked Ocasio-Cortez if she was concerned that "the slippery slope towards socialism inevitably ends in full communism," the New York legislator laughed before responding.
"No, I'm not worried that America will become a communist country in a year. I think that's quite foolish," declared the congresswoman.
Ocasio-Cortez, 36 years old and representing New York's 14th congressional district since 2018, formally defines herself as a democratic socialist and is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), although none of the progressive politicians that Trump often targets identifies as communist.
To illustrate what she considers an unfounded alarm, the legislator referred to a specific fact: the federal minimum wage has been frozen at $7.25 per hour since 2009, currently applicable in 20 states and two territories.
"We can't even raise the minimum wage. Do Republicans really think this is going to happen? No, they don't believe it. They're trying to scare people because they don't want us to talk about the fact that we all have a right to healthcare in this country," he stated.
Ocasio-Cortez went further and accused Republicans of using the label "communist" as an electoral smoke screen: "They want to label everything they don't like as communist, because if people really wake up to the fact that their elected officials are betraying them when they get here, then they will realize they deserve something better."
The congresswoman also pointed out that countries like Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Canada provide universal healthcare, while the United States "spends the most money to receive the worst care in the developed world."
Ocasio-Cortez's response comes amid a systematic anti-communist offensive by Trump that has intensified since June, with the midterm elections in November on the horizon.
According to an analysis by Reuters, Trump's team invoked communism 81 times in just two weeks in July, testing the message in focus groups ahead of the elections.
On Wednesday, Trump also accused the "communists" of wanting to blow up Mount Rushmore, and on the same day, the official White House account released a clip in which the president stated: "With communism, everything goes to hell".
The political context also includes a report from the State Department presented by Secretary Marco Rubio on July 20, titled "Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism," which accuses the Cuban regime of sponsoring radical leftism in the United States for more than six decades, linking domestic anti-communist rhetoric with the administration's foreign policy.
Ocasio-Cortez is considered a potential Democratic presidential candidate for 2028, although she has not made any formal statement regarding this.
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