President Donald Trump escalated his anti-communist rhetoric Thursday night, posting on Truth Social that “[t]he game is on” after a week of railing against what he calls a rising communist influence within the Democratic Party. “The Communists are finally making their move. I’ve been waiting and preparing for this for a long time,” Trump wrote. “It’s easy to be a Communist, All you have to do is say, ‘I’ll give you everything,’ but that means you’re taking it away from others that have earned it. Over thousands of years, that Ideology has not worked once,” he continued. “The game is on. Enjoy watching!”

The posts are the latest in a series of messages Trump has published this week highlighting what he describes as the emergence of communist candidates in Democratic politics. On Tuesday night, he wrote: “Many Communists running in badly failing Blue States. The votes seem to have them doing quite well against each other. The bad news is that history has conclusively shown that the downtrodden States that they will soon be running will ONLY GET WORSE. MAGA!” He followed that Wednesday with a shorter declaration: “America the Beautiful will NEVER be a Communist Country!!!”

Trump’s latest comments come after candidates backed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani scored victories in New York’s Democratic House primaries Tuesday, strengthening the influence of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) within the state’s Democratic Party. The results prompted renewed debate over the party’s ideological direction, with progressives celebrating the victories while some Democratic leaders expressed concern about their political implications. Mamdani, who identifies as a democratic socialist and is a member of the DSA, has become one of the nation’s highest-profile progressive elected officials. His allies’ primary victories this week, including two over incumbent representatives, further expanded the influence of candidates aligned with his political movement. Trump has repeatedly labeled Mamdani and his political allies as communists while arguing that left-wing economic policies would undermine prosperity through wealth redistribution.