Trump Dismisses Mamdani Comparisons on ‘60 Minutes’: ‘I’m a Much Better-Looking Person Than Him’
President Donald Trump took aim at New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani during a nationally televised interview Sunday night, brushing off comparisons between them with trademark flair and calling the 34-year-old Democrat a “communist.”
Sitting down with CBS News’ “60 Minutes” for the first time in five years, Trump was asked by correspondent Norah O’Donnell about the left-wing candidate who has been described by some as a “progressive Trump.”
“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 asked.
Trump didn’t hesitate.
“Well, I think I’m a much better-looking person than him,” he joked, before getting serious. “He’s far worse than a socialist. He’s a communist.”
Mamdani, a New York state assemblyman and self-proclaimed democratic socialist, has rapidly risen to the front of the mayoral pack with a hard-left platform that includes defunding the NYPD, creating a city-run housing authority, and supporting reparations.
Trump dismissed the idea that Mamdani could lead New York effectively, saying his radical agenda would send the city spiraling further into chaos.
“I think he’s probably gonna make [former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio] look great,” Trump said. “I think he will make de Blasio look like one of our great mayors. De Blasio was the worst mayor we’ve ever had.”
The wide-ranging interview was taped at Mar-a-Lago and marked Trump’s return to the legacy media program after years of legal tensions. CBS previously drew Trump’s ire in 2024 when the network aired what his legal team later alleged was a deceptively edited interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump ultimately sued CBS’s parent company Paramount for $10 billion. In July, the case was settled for $16 million.
During the “60 Minutes” broadcast, Trump referenced the prior incident, saying he hoped the network would treat him fairly this time around.
“Let’s see if they treat me better than they treat other people. Although, I do say this, they treated Kamala very well. In fact, they changed her answers,” Trump said.
Following the settlement, Trump’s lawyers described the win as another blow to the “Fake News media” and a victory for Americans who “deserve the truth, not edited propaganda.”
As for Mamdani, Trump showed no signs of backing down from his criticism of the far-left candidate, suggesting that his rise is emblematic of a Democratic Party increasingly untethered from reality.