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Donald Trump blasted New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday, labelling the 33-year-old who beat former governor Andrew Cuomo in a historic win for the Democratic primary, “a 100% Communist Lunatic” who “looks TERRIBLE” in a series of mocking Truth Social posts.
“Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary, and is on his way to becoming Mayor. We’ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous,” Trump wrote of the state assemblyman, who represents parts of the president’s birthplace of Queens. “He looks TERRIBLE, his voice is grating, he’s not very smart, he’s got AOC+3, Dummies ALL, backing him, and even our Great Palestinian Senator, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, is groveling over him. Yes, this is a big moment in the History of our Country!”
The president, in a second post during his spare moments at the ongoing NATO summit, sarcastically suggested the struggling national Democratic party could get back in “play” by nominating fellow left-leaning leaders like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jasmine Crockett, before declaring the country is “really SCREWED.”
The message, part of a torrent of online abuse following Mamdani’s win, contains multiple inaccuracies.
Firstly, Mamdani is not a communist but rather a democratic socialist.
Ocasio-Cortez is the only person mentioned in the posts that has formally endorsed Mamdani, though fellow “Squad” member Ilhan Omar, as well as Senator Schumer, have both congratulated the state lawmaker on his victory, widely seen as a shock upset of Democratic stalwart and former governor Cuomo.
Schumer, the most prominent Jewish lawmaker on Capitol Hill, is not of Palestinian heritage.
During Mamdani’s campaign — which energized progressive young voters with its savvy online presence and calls for free buses and a rent freeze on rent stabilized apartments — the candidate regularly criticized Trump, claiming his agenda of mass immigration raids were a sign of “authoritarianism.”
He also slammed the usually Republican-backing megadonors who rallied around Cuomo as “the same billionaires that put Donald Trump in DC,” and made a video ad highlighting the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate and U.S. permanent resident who is thought to be the first person arrested as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestine student activists.
Trump wasn’t the only one criticizing Mamdani.
During a Wednesday interview on Fox and Friends, current New York City mayor Eric Adams, who plans to run as an independent during the general election in November, called Mamdani a “snake oil salesman” who would say “anything to get elected.”
In April, a federal judge dismissed a corruption case against Adams at the request of Trump administration prosecutors, after Adam signaled he would assist the administration on immigration operations. Later that month, Adams initiated a plan to let federal immigration officials operate in New York City’s Riker’s Island prison, though courts have so far blocked the effort.
Critics have alleged the corruption case ended as part of a quid pro quo with Adams, and some federal prosecutors in New York resigned rather than authorizing dropping the bribery case.
Adams and the DOJ have denied any wrongdoing.
In a preview of his own campaign, which formally kicks off with a rally on Thursday, Adams hammered Mamdani’s relative inexperience and alluded to concerns over his stances on Israel during his Fox interview.
“What NYC deserves is a mayor who’s proud to run on his record—not one who ran from his record, or one who has no record,” Adams wrote on X. “We deserve a mayor who will keep driving down crime, support our police, fight antisemitism, and stand up for working-class New Yorkers.”
Mamdani has criticized the Israeli war in Gaza as a “genocide,” but has denied being antisemitic, and has said he will protect Jewish New Yorkers along with other minority groups and seeks to increase funding to stop hate crimes.
The outcome of the mayoral race is seen as a referendum on the overall direction of the Democratic party.
Mamdani already beat the centrist Cuomo, who was seen as a favorite by much of the Democratic establishment and got the endorsement of former President Bill Clinton, with a campaign that ran well to the left of the national party featuring proposals like government-run low-cost grocery stores and universal childcare.
Cuomo, who conceded the Democratic primary race, said Wednesday he’s considering an independent run himself.
Winning in the general would mark a major political comeback for the former governor, who resigned in 2021 facing a series of sexual harassment allegations by women, including former staffers, found to be credible by state and federal officials.
During the primary campaign, Cuomo dismissed the allegations as “all political.”
