In Donald Trump‘s America, even city funding now depends on the president’s beauty standards. On 60 Minutes, when asked about New York’s mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, Trump didn’t talk policy or governance. He talked looks.
“I think I’m a much better-looking person than him, right?” Trump said with a smug grin when Norah O’Donnell called Mamdani a “left-wing” version of him. She pointed out that both Trump and Mamdani are “charismatic, and breaking the old rules.” But Trump was only concerned with who looked better.
He also called Mamdani a “communist,” when O’Donnell called him a socialist instead. “He’s far worse than a socialist,” Trump claimed, before threatening to withhold money from New York if the 34-year-old wins. “It’s gonna be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York,” he remarked. “If you have a communist running New York, all you’re doing is wasting the money you’re sending there.”
But this isn’t just another offhand insult. It’s part of Trump’s long-running pattern. When faced with opponents who can’t be easily caricatured as “weak,” Trump defaults to ridicule. He’s called women “horseface,” journalists “fat pigs,” and now, a rising brown, Muslim American politician “worse than a socialist” (via NY Post). But Trump’s irritation with Mamdani isn’t new.
He has previously attacked him as “un-American” and “radical,” echoing his playbook against Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, too. Trump delegitimizes non-white progressives as “outsiders,” and tries to turn disagreement into personal disgust. And being the mighty Christian that he is, Trump has more than one personal bias against Mamdani.
But what’s alarming is his threats to starve an entire state of funds because it elects someone he dislikes. He has reiterated the warning time and again, including recently posting a long rant on Truth Social:
“If Communist Candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the Election for Mayor of New York City, it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required… I don’t want to send, as President, good money after bad.”
This isn’t just election interference; it’s an unconstitutional attack that shows just how little he really cares about people. If New Yorkers refuse to vote for a candidate that he likes, he publicly announced his revenge plan. It’s both absurd and revealing of how everything is just a political game to Trump.
But despite all his threats, social media didn’t back off. They hit him exactly where it hurts, because Trump’s obsession with image has crossed from vanity into governance. One user wrote, “Allow me to reassure you, Donald — you are not better looking than Mamdani. You are not as intelligent, not as fit, not even close in decency.”
Another asked an obvious question, “Does he own a mirror?” because if he did, he wouldn’t be comparing his 79-year-old looks with a 34-year-old. Regardless, Trump has now beauty a part of his political logic. And it might just be another reason he hates Mamdani so much. “He wants hair and tinted skin, he’s jealous,” as one user pointed out. Sadly, there’s only one person who would agree with his rhetorical question of who’s better looking. And the correct answer is not Trump.
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