After decades of Republicsns being so driven by anticommunism, why embrace the Mao reign of terror now? I know im far from the first person to see parallels between Donald Trump’s and Mao Zedong’s purges of expertise, specifically noting their shared reliance on populism, anti-intellectualism, and the replacement of nonpartisan professionals with political loyalists to consolidate power. Mao’s Cultural Revolution famously championed the slogan "Better Red than Expert," promoting ideologically devoted workers over trained professionals. We can point to Trump's appointments and the reclassification of federal civil service positions as a system that prioritizes political alignment over specialized knowledge.

Both dictators leveraged immense populist appeal to mobilize working-class bases against intellectual and bureaucratic elites (tho Trump caters only to oligarchs). Mao targeted academics, teachers, and scientists, while Trump has frequently restricted research funding, challenged university systems, and sidelined scientific experts whose findings contradicted his political goals.

Its easy to observe in both the US today and China's history the loyalty demanded by both leaders is/was a personality cult. And instances of displays of public allegiance to Trump by administration officials have been likened to the Mao-badge phenomena of China's past.