House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) didn’t quite give a direct answer Tuesday when asked how some of Donald Trump’s policies are “any different” from communism.

At a press conference, The Independent’s Eric Michael Garcia asked Johnson, “How is communism any different from what President Trump is doing, getting equity stakes in tech and promising $5,000 checks to Americans and having equity in steel?”

Johnson first took a moment to praise Trump’s creativity and proclaim him “the ideas president.”

“So, what the president is articulating — and he comes up with creative ideas all the time; he’s the ideas president, and we have a hard time keeping pace with it sometimes — he debuted at the convention, famously, the idea of basically a dividend check to Americans, right? We’re processing that,” Johnson responded.

The Republican Party has been spending the last few months lobbying to maintain control of the House and Senate by claiming that Democrats are “communists.”

Meanwhile, under Trump’s watch, the U.S. government has reportedly become part owner of 30 private companies — arguably acquiring the means of production in America. The president’s recent vow to give every American adult $5,000 if Republicans win the midterms has also invited comparisons to socialism, though it’s unclear how the promised checks would be funded.

Johnson said Trump’s latest promise was just his way of “trying to articulate” that if “you want more money in your pockets, you’ve got to keep Republicans in charge.”

“That’s what the president’s talking about,” Johnson insisted.

He also plugged a GOP website that he said summarizes “the nightmare that is the road to socialism, communism, Marxism.”

Watch his full comments below:

Q: You talked about communism. How is communism any different from what Trump is doing with equity stakes in tech and promising $5,000 checks to everyone? Johnson: He comes up with creative ideas all the time. He’s the ideas president. pic.twitter.com/AcBATJJYOl

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