"MAGA Maoism is spreading through the populist right," former congressional speechwriter Rotimi Adeoye wrote for The Washington Post last month.

James Surowiecki, the first journalist to deduce that the White House used trade deficits to calculate its reciprocal tariffs, argued Monday that Trumpism is "becoming perversely, farcically Maoist."

Drew Pavlou, an Australian anti-communism activist, wrote on Substack that "the entire world is now held hostage to Trump and his primitive, strangely Maoist worldview."

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"The big picture: Trump's embrace of centralized economic power is just one piece of a broader governing style that borrows heavily from strongman traditions.

The bottom line: There will be no communist revolution under Trump. But his second-term style reflects ideas the U.S. has long fought against " now reframed in nationalist terms."

Totalitarianism: