An 'alarmed' Trump says the U.S. 'will never be a socialist country'

(Image credit: Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

published 6 February 2019

President Trump blasted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during his State of the Union address Tuesday night, two weeks after the U.S. recognized Juan Guaidó as its interim president.

Because of Maduro's "socialist policies," Venezuela is now in "a state of abject poverty and despair," Trump said. He then tried to tie such policies to democratic socialists in the U.S., saying, "Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country. America was founded on liberty and independence — not government coercion, domination, and control."  

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.