useful idiot
nounEtymology The earliest known usage in Western media is in a 1948 article in the social-democratic Italian paper L'Umanità – as cited in the New York Times article on Italian politics (see quotations). Often misattributed to Vladimir Lenin.
1
Government, Politics Derogatory, Historical A Communist sympathizer in Western countries, from the perspective of the political right.
- L'Umanita said the Communists would give the “useful idiots” of the left-wing Socialist party the choice of merging with the Communist party or getting out.1948 June 21, Arnold Cortesi, “Communist Shift Is Seen In Europe”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 08 Aug 2025, page 14:
- During the 1930s and ’40s and ’50s, the right had derided liberal writers and editors as Communists’ “useful idiots,” unwittingly doing the Communists’ propaganda work; it looks in retrospect as if, starting in the 1970s, a lot of them—of us—became capitalists’ useful idiots.2020 August 7, Kurt Andersen, “College-Educated Professionals Are Capitalism’s Useful Idiots”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 08 Aug 2020:
2
Government, Politics Derogatory One who unwittingly supports a malignant cause through naive attempts to be a force for good.
- But what should the Obama Cult do now? The man has turned off the switch on the "Hopenosis" and has revealed the "Change Brigade" for the useful idiots they were.2009 January 22, Alex Knepper, “Obama's cabinet appointments contradict with message”, in The Mirror (Fairfield University), volume 34, number 15, page 3:
- “President Trump should be considered to be a useful idiot and a fellow traveler, which makes him an unwitting agent of Putin,” he says.2020 September 14, Jeffrey Goldberg, quoting Alexander Vindman, “Alexander Vindman: Trump Is Putin’s ‘Useful Idiot’”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 01 Nov 2020: