Former college football coach and current U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who is running for governor in Alabama to replace term-limited Republican incumbent Kay Ivey, is being criticized on social media for repeating a GOP talking point portraying Democrats as communists.
Tuberville, running with the endorsement of President Donald Trump, asserted, “Republicans are the party of AMERICA. Democrats are the party of COMMUNISM.”
[NOTE: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) also continues to criticize members of the Democratic Party, including Democratic Socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, by mislabeling them as Communists as he tries to keep his party in control of the House months before the 2026 midterm elections.]
Former U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL), who is running against Tuberville in the gubernatorial election, replied with photos of Trump with three world leaders: China’s leader Xi Jinping, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and wrote: “Make believe Communists are clearly the monsters under your bed Tommy, but whose daddy is the one infatuated with actual Communists?”
Make believe Communists are clearly the monsters under your bed Tommy, but whose daddy is the one infatuated with actual Communists? https://t.co/gvDoyEu0Po pic.twitter.com/fOCFj9CTOA
— Doug Jones (@DougJones) August 24, 2026
Some Republicans have suggested that recent Trump administration moves, not linked to Democrats, amount to forms of socialism. Last year, when the Trump administration made the U.S. government the largest shareholder in chipmaker Intel after it converted $10.86 billion in federal grants into equity in the company, the move was deemed “a socialist move” by Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Rand Paul (R-KY).
Paul wrote: “If socialism is government owning the means of production, wouldn’t the government owning part of Intel be a step toward socialism?”
Former U.S. Representative Justin Amash (R-IL) also wrote, after the Trump administration tried to bail out Spirit Airlines, “Trump is the most corporate socialist president of our lifetime.”
Bailout + nationalization.
Trump is the most corporate socialist president of our lifetime. https://t.co/ygULV3PyxX
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) April 22, 2026