WASHINGTON ― As President Donald Trump ramps up his accusations that Democrats want to turn this country into Venezuela, he may soon find that his party’s attacks along those lines over the past nine decades have left him the boy who cried socialism.

From Social Security to labor laws to housing discrimination legislation to the Affordable Care Act, the GOP has been accusing Democrats from Franklin Roosevelt through Barack Obama of being socialists ― 87 years of “Red Scare.”

“This socialism fearmongering smells like desperation,” said Jared Bernstein, once the top economist for former Vice President Joe Biden. “Does it work anymore? I don’t think so.”

Trump, nevertheless, has made it a centerpiece of why he should be re-elected next year, bringing it up at seemingly every opportunity.

In his State of the Union speech on Feb. 5, Trump vowed from the dais of the House chambers: “Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.” A month later, during a two-hour, Fidel Castro-style speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference: “Democrat lawmakers are now embracing socialism.” Even in the Rose Garden on Tuesday, beside Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, Trump managed to squeeze in a warning: “The last thing we want in the United States is socialism.”

Bernstein said that Trump, with his admiration for dictators like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, had little room to compare Democrats to Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro ― particularly after Trump’s repeated commands to private businesses to take a particular action.

In Lima, Ohio, on Wednesday, for example, Trump demanded that General Motors reopen a nearby car factory: “Get that plant open or sell it to somebody and they’ll open it! Everybody wants it. Sell it to somebody or open it yourselves!”

“Those words would have been very comfortable to Maduro and other authoritarians,” Bernstein said. “Maybe Reagan had some credibility in this space, but Trump has none.”

Nine Decades Of ‘Red Scare’

Republicans argue that Democrats have brought the attacks on themselves. “Free college, a universal wage, free health care and free everything else is defining the platform right now,” said Rory Cooper, once a top aide to former Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. “I know the difference between ‘democratic socialism’ and ‘socialism socialism,’ but it’s Democrats under the guise of capturing Bernie Sanders’ support without supporting Bernie Sanders that are playing footsie with the ideology.”

Sanders, a Vermont independent senator who caucuses with Democrats, in the 1970s actually espoused positions better described by “socialism socialism” ― such as government ownership of vast swaths of the economy, including utilities and banks. Four decades later, he advocates a much-expanded social safety net akin to what is found in northern Europe. “What democratic socialism means to me is having, in a civilized society, the understanding that we can make sure that all of our people live in security and in dignity,” he said at a CNN town hall last month.

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whose policies are also called “socialist” by Republicans, has specifically said she rejects that label, but does believe that capitalism and free markets need strong regulations to protect consumers and the public interest generally. “I believe in capitalism,” Warren said in a January interview with Bloomberg. “I see the wealth that can be produced. But let’s be really clear: Capitalism without rules is theft.”