'Suffer and die?' CNN struggles to make it through Trump's 'alarmist' post

CNN reporter Kristen Holmes and anchor Brianna Keilar struggled to take President Donald Trump's social media rant seriously on Friday after the MAGA leader uncorked a 400-word screed on his Truth Social platform.

Holmes, CNN's White House correspondent, reported that a political adviser had told her the Republican pitch heading into the midterms "wasn't going to be alarmist," built around the idea that things would improve under Trump but worsen if Democrats won. Then Trump posted to Truth Social moments before taking the stage at the Faith and Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority conference in Washington.

"I'm not quite sure President Trump got that message," Holmes said.

The post linked Democrats to "Communists" after three candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani won their House primaries this week. Trump wrote that a country under such policies would eventually "suffer or die," called it "the most serious threat to our Country since its existence 250 years ago," and claimed, "assassinations of those who oppose them is a very important element of their Ideology."

Holmes flagged the gap with the adviser's promise. "That does sound alarmist, somewhat at least to me," she said, pointing to the language about people suffering and dying if Democrats prevail.

Anchor Brianna Keilar agreed. The line about everyone suffering or dying, she said, "probably hits that alarmist mark."

Trump has long leaned on a tactic critics compare to Cold War red-baiting, conflating democratic socialism with communism. He has also drawn accusations of hypocrisy over his own interventions in private industry, including the government's stake in Intel.