‘Textbook communism’: Donald Trump embraces Marxism and insists you should love owning less stuff

Donald Trump and the American right throw around the word “communism” like confetti. Disney movies with girl heroes: communism! Life-saving vaccination programs: communism! Getting a post deleted on social media: somehow also communism!

But it seems that all this has been a smokescreen to allow Comrade Trump to sneak Karl Marx in through the back door or the White House, as his defense of tariffs has resulted in an argument ripped from the pages of a communist pamphlet. According to Trump, “beautiful baby girls” don’t need “30 dolls”, but can have just three or four. He’s also critical of their stationery expenditure, saying no child needs 250 pencils when “they can have five”.

As Professor of Political Science Robert E. Kelly rightly says, this is “literally a neo-Marxist critique.”:

MAGA loves to call its opponents ‘communists,’ but this is literally a neo-Marxist critique of consumerism https://t.co/BOchnEciEE

— Robert E Kelly (@Robert_E_Kelly) May 4, 2025

Trump’s words may as well have fallen from the mouth of Marx himself. In 1844, Marx said: “The less you are, the less you express your life, the more you have, the greater is your alienated life and the greater is the saving of your alienated being.” Trump is also nicely in line with Theodor Adorno, who explained that: “consumers feel compelled to buy and use its products even though they see through them.”

Trump also sounds suspiciously similar to Bernie Sanders, who was pilloried for saying: “You don’t necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants or of 18 different pairs of sneakers when children are hungry in this country. I don’t think the media appreciates the kind of stress that ordinary Americans are working on.”

An American president being openly critical of consumerism, advising citizens to spend less on objects, and instructing people to not prioritize possessions is radical and, at least on paper, probably makes Trump one of the most prominent Marxist figures in the history of American politics.

Not even Bernie has ever dared to go that far left.
Also coming from the same guy that needs a +$90 million parade.

— ElMontaraz (@MontarazAstur) May 4, 2025

Trump, of course, would never identify openly as a Marxist or communist, but his economic policies have backed him into a logical corner where the only response is to accidentally fall ass-backwards into Marxist theory. It remains to be seen whether Trump’s strategy of “fewer toys for kids” will pay off in electoral popularity. Heck, maybe the American people will throw off the shackles of capitalism, refocus themselves on an ascetic life free of worldly goods, and dismiss the illusion of consumer choice.

I voted for trump but this literally is textbook communism. Tell me what I can buy and how much.

I DID NOT VOTE FOR THIS!!!!

— aintnoseats (@aintnoseat26918) May 4, 2025

Or they could just get really mad on social media when their darling daughter Jenny asks for a Barbie that’s now been slammed with a 145% tariff that they can’t afford. Either way, we can only hail Trump’s embrace of the fundamentals of Marxism and hope his philosophical and economic enlightenment continues!