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Donald Trump is no fan of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee in the New York City mayoral race.
He’s attacked Mamdani as a communist — Mamdani is actually a Democratic Socialist — and insisted that if he is elected to lead New York City the entire place will collapse.
Now, Trump is contemplating getting far more involved in stopping Mamdani. Here’s the New York Times:
In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has quizzed a Republican congressman and New York businessmen about who in the crowded field of candidates, which includes Mayor Eric Adams and former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, has the best chance of beating Mr. Mamdani, the leftist front-runner.
The president has been briefed by Mark Penn, a pollster who has worked for Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Andrew Stein, a former New York City Council president and decades-long friend of Mr. Trump, on a range of polling that showed Mr. Cuomo could still be competitive as an independent candidate. Both men have pushed Mr. Cuomo as the best candidate despite his loss in the Democratic primary, including in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed. One of Mr. Penn’s firms did extensive work for a pro-Cuomo super PAC in the primary.
Mark Penn! Andrew Cuomo! The Clintons!
I mean this story has it all!!!
I have several thoughts.
This is the best thing that has happened to Mamdani since he won the nomination. New York City is not Trump territory. The president actively involving himself in the attempt to stop Mamdani will almost certainly drive skeptical Democrats into Mamdani’s camp. The more this race becomes a referendum on Trump rather than on Mamdani’s many controversial past positions, the better for Mamdani’s chances.
Trump’s instincts here aren’t wrong. The only chance beat Mamdani in the fall is to consolidate all of the anti-Mamdani vote behind one candidate. If there are three anti-Mamdani candidates, that vote will be too fractured for any one of them to seriously challenge him. And, I also think Cuomo has the best chance of beating Mamdani in a one-on-one race. But…
Cuomo lost the primary because Democrats thought he was too political, too conniving, too changeable. How will it look if Trump and Cuomo are seen as conspiring together to beat Mamdani — given that Cuomo has bashed Trump repeatedly as a danger to democracy? (The Times reports that Cuomo and Trump have spoken in recent weeks about all of this.)
My third point reinforces my first one: ALL of this is good for Mamdani. If I was him and his campaign, I would make sure every single potential New York voter knew that Cuomo and Trump were trying to combine forces to oust him. He couldn’t draw up a better reason for voters in the city to be for him.
One more point: Why, if Trump wants to elect more Republicans nationwide, would he work to keep a prime potential bogeyman — Mamdani — from getting elected to one of the highest profile political roles in the country? Wouldn’t Mamdani leading New York City be perfect for Republicans nationally looking to paint Democrats as hopefully out of touch and liberal?
