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During a conversation with the CBS programme 60 Minutes, Donald Trump touched on topics ranging from his pardons to the upcoming mayoral election in New York.
Zohran Mamdani, 34, a democratic socialist, has run on a platform for New York focused on affordability and inclusion – something with Trump has targeted.
The interviewer asked Trump: ‘Zohran Mamdani, 34-year-old Democratic socialist. He’s – ‘
Trump interrupted her: ‘He’s a communist – not a socialist.’
When the interviewer finished, she asked Trump what she thought of people calling Mamdani a ‘left-wing’ version of the President.
Trump smirked: ‘Well, I think I’m a much better-looking person than him, right?’
Trump continued, saying it would be ‘hard’ for him to give ‘a lot of money’ to New York if Mamdani was elected.
‘If you have a communist running New York, all you’re doing is wasting the money you’re sending there,’ he said.
‘So, I don’t know if he’ll win, and I’m not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other, but if it’s going to be between a bad democrat and a communist, I’ll pick the bad Democrat all of the time.’
It’s worth noting that Mamdani is not a communist, but rather, a democratic socialist.
In an interview with CNN in late September, when asked directly if he was a communist, Mamdani replied: ‘No.’
‘I’m a democratic socialist. I’ve said that time and time again, and I think this reflects the fact that those critiques, that identity (democratic socialist) would have been enough for Donald Trump in the past, now he doesn’t even want to use that,’ Mamdani said.
‘He knows that the message of my politics is connecting with New Yorkers across the five boroughs. It’s a message of dignity in each and every person’s life.
‘What we’re seeing in what Donald Trump says is he’s going through the many stages of grief.
‘First, it’s a denial that this could ever take place. Now, it’s acceptance, but through it all, he’s looking to use every tool at his disposal to help Cuomo become the next mayor of this city.’