Let's Talk About Donald Trump's Totally One-Sided Infatuation With Zohran Mamdani!
In which the old man abruptly changes tactics.
Whoa, what the heck happened between President Donald John Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the White House on Friday? We were so excited for Mamdani to verbally spank the old pervert from Queens around the room with a rolled-up newspaper, just like he did with the one that came before him, Andrew Cuomo.
But then a funny thing happened on the way to the press scrum: Trump seemed to have been charmed! And suddenly had nothing but nice things to say about the man he’d been ranting was a “100% communist lunatic,” “terrible,” “not very smart,” and “grating.”
Watch this mind-bending display if you missed it:
Trump congratulated Mamdani, said he wanted to help him “make everybody’s dream come true” of a safe New York.
“He’s going to change, also. We all change. I changed a lot.”
Ah, there’s the old abusive husband he’s accused of being! Trump sure has changed, and not just since the Clintons attended his third wedding or when he donated to Hillary’s campaign. Overnight! The president even warmly embraced being called a “fascist” and said being called a “despot” was “not that insulting” because he’s been called worse, while reassuringly patting Mamdani on the arm. Did somebody slip Jesus juice into grandpa’s Diet Coke can?
FRIDAY!
“I feel very confident that he can do a very good job. I think he is going to surprise some conservative people, actually. And some very liberal people, he won’t surprise them because they already like him.”
Trump dropped all talk of invading New York, or cutting the city off financially (also, courts have told him he can’t do that).
“I expect to be helping him, not hurting him,” Trump 180-ed. “A big help. Because I want New York City to be great. Look, I love New York City, it’s where I come from, I spent a lot of years there. I think this mayor could do some things that are going to be really great,” he said about the city he’d recently posted an AI video of himself literally dumping shit on.
“He’s got views that [are] a little out there, but who knows. I mean, we’re going to see what works.”
“I would feel very, very comfortable being in New York, and I think much more so after the meeting.”
Seriously, has Trump been running for the shelter of some kind of little helpers?
He even threw Elise Stefanik under the bus!
“Do you think you’re standing next to a jihadist?” asked a reporter, referring to the nonstop racist blurblings about Mamdani from the representative from New York who thinks she’s running agaisnt Governor Kathy Hochul.
“No, I don’t,” said Trump. “But she’s out there campaigning, and you know, you say things sometimes in a campaign. She’s a very capable person. But, you’d really have to ask her about that. I met with a man who is a very rational person. I met with a man who really wants to see New York be great again.”
Stefanik just lies a lot, what can you do? What an endorsement!
Stefanik responded the next day:
“We all want NYC to succeed. But we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one. If he walks like a jihadist If he talks like a jihadist If he campaigns like a jihadist If he supports jihadists, He’s a jihadist. And he’s Kathy Hochul’s jihadist.”
(Here’s what she had to say about Stefanik, by the way.)
Such a big tent Trump has made for the GOP. It fits Nazi sympathizers, Zionists, Middle Eastern despots, evangelicals praying for the rapture, and now Mamdani voters, too!
Trump was so proud he posted multiple photos to his website.
More pictures than he’s ever posted of himself with Barron. And Tiffany? Forget about it.
Naturally, Laura Loomer and the rabid islamophobes in Trump’s base, who Trump himself had been stoking and encouraging ever since his first-term Muslim ban, were in apoplexy all weekend, with Loomer also pounding on X that Mamdani was a JIHADIST trying to “Islamify” America.
Finally, a cultural reference on the internet that’s old enough for Trump to get! And maybe his Middle Eastern friends did give him a little lesson on diversity, equity and inclusion. Like, if you want diverse peoples and their wealth funds to stick some equity and airplane money in your pocket, put a lid on slurs about their religion. Whatever it takes for world peace!
But the question is, why the reversal on Mamdani? Well, Trump always has to project the image of being in control, even and especially when he is not, and his power and influence have slipped BIGLY this month, following the blue tsunami November 4, plus the open Republican rebellion in the House over releasing the Epstein Files.
“He said a lot of my voters actually voted for him, and I’m okay with that,” Trump insisted about Mamdani, as if he had a choice.
Trump also responds to whatever stimulus is in front of him. A picture of a camel, a charming socialist from Uganda, AI slop of Portland on fire, he responds like a cat with a feather on a string until something else catches his eye. He’ll probably agree with the next oligarch who drops in on him too.
And he likes winners, and winning. The November 4 electoral drubbing Republicans got was all about affordability. Trump wants to position himself as the affordability guy! That sure sounds like what Mamdani tried to sell him behind closed doors.
Plus, federal troops invading the streets of in New York City is a losing proposition for Trump. It’s one thing to turn pockets of Chicago or Los Angeles into warzones, but tiny Manhattan is the economic engine of the western hemisphere. And as much as Trump might like to fantasize about dropping planeloads of diarrhea on it for hating him so much, Manhattan turned into a tear-gas-blasted Fallujah-looking place with armored cars rolling down Broadway and flashbangs going off on Wall Street is not good for his grift or his ego or his MAKING AMERICA GREAT image.
Finally, Trump is not, in fact, better-looking than Mamdani. He might believe there’s no faster way to dull Mamdani’s shine and neutralize that threat than make it look like the two of them are in cahoots. Both sides are the same! Come roll with the big dog for some fleas! (Didn’t work.)
Regardless, as Jeffrey Epstein doled out as advice to pass along to the Russians when dealing with Trump, the guy always has to “be seen to get something.”
So what did Trump get from Mamdani, or what does he expect? Anything beyond being treated like a beloved-yet-fusty eccentric uncle, and attention from Mamdani fans?
We will find out!
[Courthouse News / The Atlantic]
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"She's full of shit."
Thank you Governor Hochul for a clear and concise description of Stefanik.
The answer is simple. Trump is a coward. He didn't have the balls to repeat what he said in person because Mamdani could whoop his ass in every way imaginable.