House Speaker Mike Johnson told voters to be wary of campaign messages that involve “promising free things.” He made the comment Sunday while speaking with Tony Perkins, who was broadcasting from the Pray Vote Stand Summit in Leesburg, Virginia.
Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, framed the coming vote as a choice between keeping the current Republican team in place and what he called the “insurgent Marxist left.” He also discussed last week’s Chinese state visit and democratic socialists during the same interview.
A Mediaite report on the remarks also pointed to a separate pledge by President Donald Trump. Trump had promised $5,000 to every American adult if Republicans keep control of the White House after the midterms.
Johnson used a China visit and a Republican website to draw a communism contrast
Johnson told Perkins that voters should “keep the team in charge that has a plan, continue on that track.” Johnson’s warning about free things comes as he has yet to fully endorse a major financial proposal from his party’s leader, such as when he declined to commit to Trump’s $5,000 dividend promise.
He added, “You cannot turn the country over to the insurgent Marxist left, and that’s what we’re facing. That’s the contrast. Our candidates are making that appeal very well, and I think it’s going to have the desired effect in, now, less than 40 days.”
Perkins described a shift in the campaign argument from “common sense vs. crazy” to “common sense vs. communism.” He said socialist and Marxist ideology, as Johnson had pointed out, “really has a strong foothold in the Democratic party.” Perkins then asked about the meeting that week between Trump and Xi Jinping and whether that contrast had been made.
Johnson answered, “Well, that’s right, and the communist regimes always suppress the freedom of the people, and that’s clear, and we see it.” He said there are “all sorts of human rights abuses and things that we’re concerned about in every communist regime,” and that “China is certainly a culprit there.”
Johnson said Republicans had launched ContrastForAmerica.com, a website he said he had discussed with Perkins before. He said the site offers a short summary of “where communism ends.” “It never ends well. It leads to poverty and human suffering and death, and that’s the reality that we have to face, and that’s what Americans have to face right now as they go to vote,” Johnson said.
Perkins said, “The story with communism always ends the same way.” Johnson replied, “Always does, and we track that. You know in the 20th century and the current century, it never ends well.”
Johnson then warned voters about campaign offers. “And when people are out on the campaign, and they’re promising free things to you, you must ask what the real price is. It is your freedom, it will drive costs up, it will ruin the economy, it will make people more dependent upon government, and ultimately, that’s the communists’ ultimate goal is, to have the government in charge of everything, which means you have zero freedom at all. It never ever works.”
During Xi’s visit, Trump continued to impose a ban on American journalists despite a court order telling him to lift it. The president also called the Chinese state-run media “the friendliest.”
Economists have cautioned that carrying out Trump’s $5,000 pledge could drive inflation higher and create economic instability.
Published: Sep 28, 2026 12:00 pm