Trump escalated his attacks on Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed during a Wednesday speech in Las Vegas, Nevada, calling the progressive candidate “full of s—.”
The remarks came just hours after El-Sayed narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, winning by less than one percentage point.
El-Sayed will now face Republican Mike Rogers in November for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters.
Trump devoted several minutes of his Las Vegas address to attacking democratic socialist candidates, arguing they are advancing communist ideas and represent a fundamental danger to the country.
“These people are dangerous and frankly, they are lunatics. They’re crazy, and we can’t let them get into office,” Trump said, adding that 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 amplified that portion of Trump’s remarks on social media, posting simply: “Communism is the greatest threat to our country.”
Trump mocked what he described as the real-world consequences of communist policies, warning Americans they would ultimately be left with “nothing but death, squalor, poverty.”
“Would you like a free house? We’ll take one from your neighbor. Would you like free rent? We’ll take it from whoever. We’ll take your building away from the landlord,” Trump said.
The president pointed to Venezuela as a cautionary example, saying: “Look at Venezuela, where it was such a rich country 20 years ago. Every time this has happened, you go through squalor … filth, crime, death, destruction, embarrassment.”
Trump then singled out El-Sayed directly, drawing one of the loudest reactions of the night when he said, “When I watch Abdul, he’s full of s—.”
El-Sayed’s primary victory gives Democrats a progressive nominee backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., in one of the country’s most closely watched Senate races.
El-Sayed campaigned on Medicare for All, removing money from politics, and ending U.S. military aid to Israel, though he has described himself as a capitalist and distanced himself from the Democratic Socialists of America.
Trump also returned to a recurring theme from his presidency, referencing his State of the Union address and his declaration that “America will never be a socialist country.”
The president argued that Democrats have now moved further left than socialism itself, saying: “They want to skip socialism. They want to go right down to the bottom of the barrel. That’s communism.”
Trump closed his remarks with a vow to defeat what he characterized as the Democratic Party’s sharp leftward drift, declaring: “Together we will defeat communism, socialism and Marxism in America once and for all.”
