Donald Trump put his name to an opinion article in USA Today published on Wednesday, in a rallying cry to voters ahead of the midterm elections and warning that a big Democratic win would bring America closer to socialism and “suffering, misery and decay”.
The president opened with a warning to senior citizens and all Americans of the dangers of a so-called universal healthcare system with guaranteed government health insurance for all.
He went on to say Democrats were in favor of “open-border socialism” and raised the alarm about the country swinging to the left, particularly with the emergence of younger, progressive insurgents who have shaken up the liberal establishment this election cycle.
“The truth is that the centrist Democratic party is dead,” Trump wrote on Wednesday. “The new Democrats are radical socialists who want to model America’s economy after Venezuela.”
Democrats are pushing for a “blue wave” of support from voters this November, hoping that the backlash against Trump since his shock win in the 2016 election and the Republicans’ further march to the right can inspire enough voters to cause the Democratic party to win control of one or even both houses of the US Congress.
But Trump’s article warned: “If Democrats win control of Congress this November, we will come dangerously closer to socialism in America. Government-run healthcare is just the beginning. Democrats are also pushing massive government control of education, private-sector businesses and other major sectors of the US economy.”
He urged that this is a fight the Republicans “must win” and issued further dire predictions about a “radical” agenda.
“Every single citizen will be harmed by such a radical shift in American culture and life. Virtually everywhere it has been tried, socialism has brought suffering, misery and decay,” he wrote.
The article has echoes of Trump’s shocking 2017 inauguration speech, which employed dystopian language and a bleak appraisal of the country as blighted in a state of “American carnage”.
He warned on Wednesday: “Today’s Democratic party is for open-borders socialism. This radical agenda would destroy American prosperity.”
