Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Tuesday launched an attack on supposed communists that critics said sounded more like a description of President Donald Trump.
During a Fox News interview, Cruz referred to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as “comrade Mamdani” and slammed him for owning a home in Uganda, where he was born.
“But that’s always the case. Fidel Castro was a billionaire. Putin is a billionaire,” Cruz said. “The leaders of communist regimes are always rich. They steal and rob from those they govern.”
Mamdani is a democratic socialist, not a communist. Yet leading Republican figures such as Cruz have taken a cue from Trump, who lately has attacked supposed “communists” in a callback to the Red Scare. In most cases, however, Trump uses the word to describe just about anyone he doesn’t like.
Trump is not just a billionaire; his personal wealth has skyrocketed by more than $2 billion since he returned to the White House last year. That number includes more than $1 billion from his crypto businesses, which he gained while some 764,000 other crypto wallets suffered massive losses on $TRUMP, according to The New York Times.
Trump’s unprecedented use of the White House to enrich himself even caused The Wall Street Journal editorial board to accuse the president and his family of “profiting off the presidency in ways that demean the office.”
Given that context, Cruz’s attack on leaders who are “always rich” and “steal and rob from those they govern” sounded a lot like it could apply to Trump himself.