Trump Drops ‘Socialism’ Attacks

John Avlon: “President Trump’s political ‘strategy’ has always been based on negative partisanship. He does not appear to believe in the politics of addition, but in the politics of division. It’s a two-part play: he demonizes Democrats to fire up the base while trying to convince just enough swing voters that he’s a proudly politically incorrect counterweight to liberal extremism.”

“For the better part of a year, those attacks could be summed up in one word: ‘socialism.’ But the S-word has basically disappeared from Trump’s vocabulary in recent months.”

“Check it out: In the second half of 2019 alone, Trump used the words ‘socialist’ or ‘socialism’ more than 100 times on Twitter or in speeches, according to the folks at Factbase. In January, he used the S-word 30 times — in February, 34 times — the equivalent of more than once a day.”

“Then things fell off a cliff: Trump invoked the bogeyman of socialism only four times in March, one time in April and a grand total of zero times in May.”