Republicans have frequently used “socialism” as a political label to oppose Democratic policies while declaring that America will never be a socialist country. Still, when JD Vance was asked to define socialism, he said it is replacing American workers with foreign workers and boys playing girls’ sports.

At a press conference announcing enforcement actions against companies accused of misusing employment visa programs to bring in more foreign workers, Vance argued that many socialists today have abandoned the traditional focus on protecting workers.

“It’s a hard term to define these days, because very often, socialism, you know, classically, you would think socialism is about prioritizing workers, and yet in reality, I guarantee that most of the self-described socialists running across the United States of America are going to howl about this announcement today, which is prioritizing American workers over foreign workers. So, I don’t know what the term means anymore,” Vance told a reporter who asked him to define socialism.

I think in reality, what it actually means in the American context is that you want to replace American workers with foreign workers, and you want boys to play in girls’ sports,” he continued. “That’s what unites the socialists that I see running across the United States of America today.”

Socialism is an economic and political system in which the public, community, or state collectively owns or controls the means of production, rather than private individuals.

Under the Trump administration, the term ‘socialism’ has been applied broadly to mean any government program or spending initiative favored by Democrats.

This as the Trump administration intervenes in private markets, imposes price controls on products like pharmaceuticals, bailed out farmers, and took government ownership stakes in private companies, including a roughly 10% stake in Intel Corp., leading critics to argue that Trump is implementing socialist policies.