President Donald Trump has insisted he’s “much better-looking” than New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
The 79-year-old president compared himself to the 33-year-old frontrunner and called him a “communist” during an appearance on CBS’s 60 Minutes Sunday as hundreds of thousands of early ballots were cast in the mayoral race.
Journalist Norah O’Donnell began to ask Trump about the race, describing Mamdani as a Democratic socialist, when the president interrupted: “Communist. Not socialist, communist. He’s far worse than a socialist.”
“Some people have compared him to a left-wing version of you: charismatic, breaking the old rules. What do you think about that?” O’Donnell pressed.
The president replied: “Well, I think I'm a much better-looking person than him. Right?”
O’Donnell curtly replied “OK” - and moved on to her next question.
Last August, Trump claimed he was better-looking than then-Vice President Kamala Harris; during his first term, he claimed others told him he resembled Elvis Presley.
If Mamdani wins Tuesday’s election, Trump has also suggested he could cut back on the amount of federal funds he would give to New York.
“It's going to be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York because if you have a communist running New York, all you're doing is wasting the money you're sending there,” Trump said.
Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor running for mayor as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani, warned last week that Trump will “take over” the Big Apple if his opponent wins.
During the Sunday interview, Trump clarified he “wasn’t a fan” of Cuomo before saying he’d prefer the former governor over Mamdani.
“If it's going to be between a bad Democrat and a communist, I'm going to pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you,” the president said.
Trump has labeled Mamdani a “communist” for months. Earlier this month, the president threatened to slash federal funds for New York City if Mamdani wins.
"We have a Communist, 33 years old, doesn't know a thing, probably never worked a day in his life, and he sort of caught on. I'm not going to send a lot of money to New York,” the president said.
In response, Mamdani told CNN: “Donald Trump may speak as if it is his decision, but this is money that this city is owed.”
“This is money that we will expect to collect, what we have seen in cities and states across the country is the necessity of not just using the bully pulpit but also the courts to ensure that every dollar that a municipality is owed is a dollar that is paid,” the mayoral candidate added.
Trump has also signaled he might deploy the National Guard to New York if Mamdani is victorious, after sending troops into Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Memphis in recent months.
“We will clean up the crime in about 30 days. It took 12 days to do Washington, D.C., so New York is bigger, and Chicago, we've already made a lot of progress despite fighting from the government,” Trump added.
Mamdani has vowed to “ fight [Trump] every step of the way.”
But the mayoral hopeful also said he “will continue to be open to speaking with Donald Trump, to meeting with Donald Trump, all of it on the premise of actually supporting New Yorkers.”
Heading into Election Day Tuesday, more than 735,000 New Yorkers have cast their ballots early in the hotly contested race.
The Atlas poll, taken through October 30, showed Mamdani with 40 percent of the vote, Cuomo with 34 percent and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa with 24 percent, CBS News reported.
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