US House passes resolution condemning socialism, 8 Democrats support

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed earlier this month a resolution that "condemns and denounces socialism in all its forms, including the Democratic Socialists of America, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States." The vote was 220–192, with eight Democrats voting "aye" and zero Republicans voting "nay."

The resolution stated that "socialist ideology necessitates a concentration of power that has, time and time again, collapsed into communist regimes, totalitarian rule, and repressive dictatorships" and "has repeatedly led to famine and mass murders, and the killing of over 100,000,000 people worldwide."

By equating democratic socialism with communism, the resolution was intended to create voter hysteria over the Democrats' nomination of about eight democratic socialists in the midterm congressional elections. It also served as a stalking horse for the SAVE Act, Trump's desperate attempt to disenfranchise Democratic voters ahead of the midterms.

A Notable Omission

Voter disenfranchisement has nothing to do with opposing socialism, so set that aside. What is striking is that the House's condemnation of socialism made no mention of the 30 companies in which President Donald Trump has acquired an ownership stake for the federal government during his second term. Trump has placed his "tiny fingers" on what The Communist Manifesto famously called "the means of production." The number of companies in which the government acquired a stake during the Democratic presidency of Joe Biden was zero.

Trump's "Undemocratic Socialism"

Because the shares in those 30 companies—some purchased, some expropriated—were acquired without input from Congress, and because the legal language for at least one of these acquisitions mentions Trump by name, as if "Donald J. Trump" were synonymous with "United States government," we might call Trump's variety undemocratic socialism.

I have called it fascist corporatism, as it seems to take a leaf from Benito Mussolini's "Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato" ("Everything within the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State"). In its current iteration, however, it is more like Tutto nello Trump, niente al di fuori della Trump, nulla contro lo Trump.

A Soviet-Style Approach?

Another possible way to describe Trump's covetous attitude toward the means of production is Soviet-style socialism—that is, communism. It remains an open question whether that is fair, because we do not yet know whether Trump will mimic the Soviet practice of spouting pro-worker propaganda while harboring a cynical indifference to the proletariat's actual welfare. But given Trump's anti-worker policies thus far, I suspect the answer will be: He will.

The Steelworkers' Test

We will know more by the end of September, when a one-month extension of contract negotiations between the United Steelworkers and United States Steel expires.

As a condition of President Donald Trump approving in June 2025 Nippon Steel's acquisition of U.S. Steel, the United States acquired a "golden share" in U.S. Steel. As I explained at the time, a golden share is a share in a publicly held corporation that grants the shareholder unilateral power to overrule management on certain matters.

It was invented by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as a condition for privatizing government-owned companies like British Airways and British Steel. The golden share in those instances allowed the British government to veto any planned sale of these assets to foreign companies. That makes Thatcher's golden shares the opposite of Trump's, which was intended to allow the sale of U.S. Steel to a foreign company. There is also a difference in directionality: Unlike Thatcher, Trump is nationalizing rather than privatizing.

But like Thatcher's golden shares, Trump's is justifi...