U.S. Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) took to X on Sunday, August 16, 2026, to deliver a sweeping message honoring ordinary Americans, celebrating the country’s history of innovation, and taking aim at what he described as socialists who “criticize us and undermine our American Dream.” The post, published at 4:47 p.m. that afternoon, is the latest entry in a yearslong pattern of public statements in which Scott has positioned himself as one of the Senate’s most vocal opponents of socialism, repeatedly linking the ideology to figures such as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The Full Post
Scott’s post, published in full, read as follows:
“I love Americans. Not politicians, not celebrities — YOU, the American people.
Ask Americans what they are most proud of, and we don’t say ‘power’ or ‘money.’ We say FREEDOM.
Then we say ‘each other.’ That tells you everything. We work hard. We come together when times get tough.
Americans landed on the moon, built the pickup, and invented the backyard barbecue. We are the world’s innovators: @elonmusk, Jeff Bezos, Thomas Edison, George Washington Carver, and Grace Hopper.
While socialists criticize us and undermine our American Dream, WE THE PEOPLE believe in a world of opportunity. One where anyone can change the world, and no matter how today went, tomorrow can be better if we work to make that happen. I love my country. I love my fellow Americans. It’s time we all remember what truly makes America great.”
The post was published at 4:47 p.m. on August 16, 2026.
A Message Centered on Everyday Americans
The senator opened his post by drawing a sharp distinction between “politicians” and “celebrities” on one hand and the broader American public on the other, writing that his affection was reserved for “YOU, the American people.” He then framed freedom as the value Americans hold above all others, writing that when asked what they are most proud of, Americans “don’t say ‘power’ or ‘money.’ We say FREEDOM.”
Scott followed that assertion with a second value he said Americans point to: one another. “Then we say ‘each other.’ That tells you everything,” he wrote, adding that Americans “work hard” and “come together when times get tough.”
Honoring American Innovation
A central portion of Scott’s post highlighted what he characterized as distinctly American achievements and inventors. He credited Americans with landing on the moon, building the pickup truck, and inventing the backyard barbecue, before naming a group of individuals he described as “the world’s innovators”: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Thomas Edison, George Washington Carver, and Grace Hopper. The list spans technology entrepreneurs of the modern era alongside historical inventors, including Carver, the agricultural scientist, and Hopper, the computer scientist and U.S. Navy rear admiral credited with pioneering work in early computer programming.
Turning to Socialism
Scott then pivoted to the section of his post that has drawn the most attention, writing that “while socialists criticize us and undermine our American Dream, WE THE PEOPLE believe in a world of opportunity.” He described that world as one “where anyone can change the world, and no matter how today went, tomorrow can be better if we work to make that happen.” He closed the post by writing, “I love my country. I love my fellow Americans. It’s time we all remember what truly makes America great.”
Part of a Broader, Sustained Campaign
Sunday’s post is not an isolated statement. Scott has built a consistent public record over the past several years explicitly targeting socialism as a political and economic threat, frequently tying his criticism to Mamdani, the New York City mayor and self-described democratic socialist who took office in January 2026.
In July 2025, Scott published a letter to the editor in the Wall Street Journal responding to an opinion piece titled “Capitalism Needs Champions.” In the letter, Scott wrote that capitalism “allowed me — a kid who grew up in public housing — to open a donut shop and, in good time, run the nation’s largest healthcare company,” and argued that “socialism robs people of their talents and opportunities, invariably resulting in deprivation and tyranny.” He pointed to Florida families who had “fled Caracas and Havana,” writing that “leaders of regimes that disdain free markets enjoy opulence while their citizens are left with next to nothing.”
A Senate Resolution Condemning Socialism
Two months later, in September 2025, Scott announced he was introducing a Senate resolution condemning socialism as “a failed ideology” and “the antithesis of the American Dream.” His office’s announcement explicitly cited Mamdani by name, stating that “as far-left politicians like Zohran Mamdani in New York openly embrace socialist ideologies,” the resolution was meant to serve as “a blunt warning that socialism is not just misguided policy, it is a proven path to tyranny, starvation, and death.” Representative María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) introduced a companion resolution in the House.
In a statement accompanying the resolution, Scott said, “Socialism is a failed ideology — it has destroyed countries, crushed economies, and robbed millions of their basic human rights. Just look at Cuba and Venezuela, or talk to any of the thousands of families in my state of Florida who fled those regimes after evil dictators stripped them of every opportunity.” He added, “It’s despicable to see far-left radicals villainizing capitalism – a system that has helped billions of American achieve their dreams – and try to tear down our country and rebuild it in their woke, radical image through socialist policies.”
Salazar, in her own statement, said, “History is clear: from Stalin’s gulags and Cambodia’s killing fields to Castro’s firing squads in Havana, socialism has always ended in misery, suffering, and death.” She said the resolution was intended “to ensure Congress speaks with one voice in condemning socialism in all its forms, wherever it rears its ugly head.”
Earlier Warnings on Socialism in Florida
Scott’s opposition to socialism predates his current Senate term’s focus on Mamdani. As governor of Florida, and later as senator, he issued repeated public warnings directed at socialists and communists, telling them in a 2023 video statement that Florida is “openly hostile” toward socialism and that residents of the state “like freedom, liberty, capitalism, things like that.” In a written statement issued that same year, Scott said that “the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by Socialists and others who work in the Biden Administration,” and warned that “any attempts to spread the oppression and poverty that Socialism always brings will be rebuffed by the people of Florida.”
Socialism’s Rising Political Profile
Scott’s Sunday post arrives amid a period in which democratic socialism has gained renewed visibility in American politics. Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and former New York State Assembly member, was elected mayor of New York City in November 2025 and inaugurated on January 1, 2026, becoming the city’s first Muslim and first Asian American mayor. During his 100th-day address in April 2026, Mamdani leaned into his democratic socialist identity, describing his approach to governance as a modern version of “sewer socialism” — a reference to a historical socialist governing tradition focused on municipal services rather than sweeping economic transformation.
Mamdani’s administration has drawn continued engagement from socialist organizing groups; the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America has said it is working to “co-govern” with the mayor’s office and has launched a “Tax the Rich” campaign aimed at supporting his broader policy agenda. Several members of Mamdani’s administration, including his chief of staff and the director of the city’s Office of Mass Engagement, are affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America.
Background
Rick Scott has served as a U.S. Senator from Florida since 2019, following two terms as the state’s governor from 2011 to 2019. Before entering politics, he worked in the private sector, an experience he has repeatedly referenced in his public arguments in favor of capitalism. Scott sits on multiple Senate committees and has made opposition to socialism, along with fiscal spending issues, a recurring theme of his public communications, including his “Washington Waste Wednesday” series highlighting federal spending.
Sunday’s X post did not name any specific individual or elected official as a target of the “socialists” reference, unlike his July 2025 Wall Street Journal letter and September 2025 resolution announcement, both of which named Mamdani directly.