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President Donald Trump has a new nickname for Zohran Mamdani, who is the clear frontrunner in New York City’s election for mayor.
“I call him my little communist. He’s my little communist mayor,” Trump said of Mamdani during an extended studio interview Friday on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.”
The 33-year-old democratic socialist state lawmaker from the New York City borough of Queens shocked the political world in June with his convincing win over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and nine other candidates to capture the Democratic Party’s mayoral nomination in the nation’s most populous city.
Mamdani proposes eliminating fares on New York City’s vast bus system, making CUNY (City University of New York) “tuition-free,” freezing rents on municipal housing, offering “free childcare” for children up to age 5 and setting up government-run grocery stores.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH TRUMP’S ENTIRE FOX AND FRIENDS INTERVIEW
Following Mamdani’s primary victory, Trump immediately criticized him as a “100% Communist Lunatic.”
The president has continued to repeatedly deride Mamdani as a communist in the ensuing months, while warning that New York City would become “a communist city” if Mamdani wins November’s mayoral election.
“We should never be in a position where we’re talking about a communist,” Trump said in his Fox and Friends interview.
POLL POSITION: JUST HOW LARGE IS MAMDANI’S LEAD IN THE NYC MAYORAL RACE?
The Ugandan-born Mamdani, who would become New York City’s first Muslim and first millennial mayor if elected, has denied being a communist.
With less than two months to go until Election Day, Mamdani holds a commanding lead over his mayoral rivals in the Democrat-dominated city, according to two new polls.
Mamdani is sitting on 22-point margin leads over Cuomo and the rest of the field in surveys released this week from Quinnipiac University and New York Times/Siena College.
Guardian Angels co-founder Curtis Sliwa, who for a second straight election is the Republican mayoral nominee in the Democrat-dominated city, was a distant third in both polls, with embattled incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent after deciding to skip the Democratic primary amid anemic polling, further down in fourth place.
CUOMO SHAKES UP CAMPAIGN IN BID TO TAKE DOWN MAMDANI
Both Sliwa and Adams have repeatedly committed to staying in the race in recent weeks amid multiple reports that Trump’s advisors floated administration roles for both mayoral hopefuls if they dropped out.
Trump, a native New Yorker who now calls Florida home, has urged that the field narrow in order to defeat Mamdani.
“I would like to see two people drop out and have it be one on one. And I think that’s a race that could be won,” Trump said last week.
MAMDANI RIVALS DEFIANT AGAINST DROPPING OUT DESPITE FACING LONG ODDS IN NYC MAYOR BATTLE
On Friday, the president said in his ‘Fox and Friends’ interview, “I think they have to have one stay. And it would look to me like Cuomo frankly is leading the other two.”
But he added that Cuomo’s “still way behind. It almost looks like even one candidate wouldn’t work at this point.”
“I’m not looking at the polls too carefully, but it would look like he is going to win and that is a rebellion. It is a rebellion against bad candidates, OK? They’re tired of it,” Trump added.
Trump also criticized Sliwa.
“Look, I’m a Republican, but Curtis is not exactly primetime,” the president claimed.
Sliwa, in a Fox News Digital interview last month, said that he hasn’t had “any conversations with President Donald Trump, who I’ve known over the years.”
“We’ve had a love-hate relationship. Everybody knows that,” Sliwa added.
The Quinnipiac poll suggested that if Adams ended his re-election campaign, Mamdani would lead Cuomo 46%-30% with Sliwa at 17%.
But the New York Times/Siena survey pointed to Mamdani edging Cuomo 48%-44% in a hypothetical two-candidate match-up.
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