President Trump predicted Friday that Zohran Mamdani will win New York City’s mayoral election — while belittling the outspoken Democratic socialist as “my little communist.”
The president told “Fox & Friends” that Mamdani could still be beaten in a one-on-one race, but bemoaned the “bad” crop of mayoral candidates for not giving Big Apple voters a viable alternative.
“I’m not looking at the polls too carefully, but it would look like he’s going to win,” Trump said. “And that’s a rebellion.
President Trump predicted that Zohran Mamdani is likely to win NYC’s mayoral race. REUTERS
“It’s also a rebellion against bad candidates, OK? It’s a rebellion. They’re tired of it.”
The dismal assessment came as Trump and his allies appear to have unsuccessfully tried to entice Mayor Eric Adams and GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa to exit the crowded mayoral race to thwart Mamdani’s ascension to City Hall.
Trump said former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat running as an independent, appeared strongest against Mamdani in the four-candidate race.
But the president also noted Cuomo still had baggage from his handling of nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, which many argue led to the deaths of thousands of New York seniors.
“He seems to be leading by a little bit, but he’s still way behind,” Trump said. “It almost looks like even one candidate at this point, is not going to work.”
Trump, with disbelief, called it “amazing” that a socialist like Mamdani looks likely to become mayor of his home city.
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“I call him my little Communist. He’s my little Communist mayor,” the Queens native said. “But, you know, he has to come to Washington for money, a lot of money.”
The president’s seeming acceptance that he’ll be dealing with Mamdani after November’s election capped a whirlwind two weeks in which he and his allies staged an unprecedented interjection into the mayoral race.
A slew of cushy potential jobs for Adams in Trump’s administration were floated by the president’s allies to get the mayor – who is polling in a dismal fourth place – to drop his independent re-election bid, sources have said.
Trump officials considered similar job offers for Sliwa, the sources said, but the red-bereted Guardian Angels founder flatly rejected the idea he’d stop running as the Republicans’ standard bearer.
The president last week even set a 10-day deadline for long-shot mayoral hopefuls to bow out, but it quietly passed without Adams or Sliwa complying with the drastic ask.
At the same time, big money interests in New York City have also tried to consolidate the anti-Mamdani support behind Cuomo – while likewise dangling lucrative possible private gigs for Adams, according to sources.
Adams publicly insisted – including during a defiant Sept. 5 news conference in which he contemptuously called Cuomo a “snake and a liar” – that he would remain in the race.
Along with his prediction, Trump said Mamdani “has to come to Washington for money, a lot of money.” AFP via Getty Images
But the mayor privately weighed the backroom offers designed to have him resign as mayor and end his scandal-plagued term so his name could be removed from the ballot, sources have said.
He had been tentatively set to travel to Washington, DC, this week for a White House sit-down over the potential jobs, which included an ambassadorship to Saudi Arabia, and, reportedly, a post at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The meeting fizzled, as did a potential face-to-face with Trump when the president attended Thursday’s Yankees game in The Bronx on the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Adams did make it near Yankee Stadium, but only on Friday as he made a whirlwind campaign tour of the Bronx.
By then, insiders said Adams’ prospects of a Trump administration job had largely fizzled and that the mayor was no longer actively considering such a landing spot.
Hizzoner oozed frustration Friday over how the highly public back-and-forth had affected his already floundering campaign’s chances.
“I think what I’m concerned about is the undermining of my campaign, all these rumors, all of these lies,” he told reporters during a stop on his campaign tour of the borough.
“Folks had me going to Saudi Arabia, they had me going to HUD, they had me going to the Yankee game, they had me going to Washington on Monday,” he continued.
“My campaign has been undermined more than any candidate, probably in the history of this city, and that agenda is clear, but I have to keep forging ahead, moving forward… I’m in it to win it, but trust me, it has been a real challenge.”
– Additional reporting by Hannah Fierick