President Donald Trump wrote in the op-ed that problems with expanded Medicare would be exasperated by undocumented immigrants if Democrats took power. “Today’s Democratic Party is for open-borders socialism,” he wrote. | Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images elections Trump: Democrats seeking Venezuela-style socialism with Medicare for all

President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that “the centrist Democratic Party is dead,” writing in a USA Today op-ed that the party seeking to overtake Republicans and claim majorities in both houses of Congress will use its Medicare for all push to begin instituting a broader socialist agenda.

“The truth is that the centrist Democratic Party is dead. The new Democrats are radical socialists who want to model America’s economy after Venezuela,” Trump wrote. “If Democrats win control of Congress this November, we will come dangerously closer to socialism in America. Government-run health care is just the beginning. Democrats are also pushing massive government control of education, private-sector businesses and other major sectors of the U.S. economy.”


The bulk of the president’s op-ed was directed specifically at attacking “Medicare for all,” a single-payer government healthcare proposal endorsed by many, but not all, Democrats. Such legislation in the House of Representatives has more than 100 Democratic co-sponsors, while a Senate bill lists 16 Democrats as co-sponsors.

Trump tied the health care proposal to another favorite subject of his, immigration, suggesting Democrats would seek to lure undocumented immigrants into the U.S. with the promise of free healthcare.

“Democrats' commitment to government-run health care is all the more menacing to our seniors and our economy when paired with some Democrats' absolute commitment to end enforcement of our immigration laws by abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” he wrote. “That means millions more would cross our borders illegally and take advantage of health care paid for by American taxpayers. Today’s Democratic Party is for open-borders socialism.”

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Trump also argued in the op-ed that expanding Medicare outside of the current general age limit of 65 would lead to a "massive rationing of health care," and the diminishing of current funds to feed an out-sized market. Expanding to Medicare for all, he wrote, would mean “seniors would no longer be able to depend on the benefits they were promised.”

