President Donald Trump was proud of a fiery anti-communism post, inviting a reporter to read the message out loud in the Oval Office.
After signing executive orders on Wednesday, the president took questions from reporters on a variety of topics, including the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, the ceasefire with Iran, and the decision to drop the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, which led to a heated exchange with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
Following his criticism of CNN, among other media outlets, Trump called on Iris Tao, a reporter for NTD News, who asked him about a post he’d shared about communism’s effects.
WATCH:
(Video Credit: The White House)
“Today, you had some stern words on communism,” began Tao, who was born in China.
“I just wrote that. Did you like that?” Trump interjected. “Did you think it was well written?”
The reporter replied that it was “certainly very meaningful to Americans,” sharing the clip on X where she noted that Trump’s response to her question was “powerful.”
“Well, you wanna read it? Do you have it?” Trump asked her. “I just felt, I’ve seen what’s going on with communism…”
Tao then read aloud the president’s post.
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 3, 2026
Trump noted that the destructive effects of communism could be seen unfolding in cities like New York and Los Angeles.
“It’s so easy, you know. I’d be the greatest in the world,” he said, joking about what he would be like as a socialist leader.
“Nobody would be as good as me… I would sell them, ‘You’re gonna get free rent, you’re gonna get free houses, you’re gonna get free food, you’re gonna get free everything,’” Trump continued. “But eventually that ends. And it leads to death, destruction, and squalor — 100% of the time.”
The president referred to New York City’s Democratic Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who visited the White House, noting that he was a “very nice person” and a “smart guy.”
“I don’t understand why he thinks it’s okay for all these companies that pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes a year to leave because you’re not going to have any tax base and you’re going to end up in hunger and squalor and death and destruction,” he continued. “I would be better than him if I wanted to go that route.”
Tao has spoken about growing up in China, where she was “absorbing a lot of communist propaganda” before her family came to the U.S.
She spoke with Trump last year in the Oval Office as she related how she had been robbed at gunpoint, thanking the president for cracking down on crime in the nation’s capital.
WOW. Iris Tao, a White House Correspondent, THANKS President Trump for cracking down on D.C. crime after revealing she’d been robbed and pistol-whipped outside her apartment.
“Mr. President, thank you so much for what you’re doing right now… Thank you for now making D.C.… pic.twitter.com/ZDDYsV4HJz
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 26, 2025
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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