Donald Trump has been saying nice things about New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — and Republicans are furious about it.
According to a New York Times report on GOP fears ahead of the midterms, Trump has repeatedly praised Mamdani warmly, actively undercutting his own party's efforts to use the democratic socialist mayor as a political boogeyman heading into November.
Republicans had been counting on Mamdani as a perfect foil — a democratic socialist running a major American city who could be used to scare suburban voters back into the GOP column. Trump's praise has made that strategy nearly impossible to execute, according to the report.
The Times buries the detail in a list of ways Trump has prioritized his own impulses over his party's electoral interests, alongside his pardon of embattled Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas — a move that helped one of the Democratic Party's most vulnerable incumbents survive. Both items got a single sentence each in the Times piece.
The pattern, according to multiple Republican officials interviewed by the Times, reflects a president whose instincts are increasingly at odds with his party's survival. Most won't say so on the record, afraid of crossing a president with what the Times calls "thin skin and a long memory."
"The stupid stuff is killing our chances," said one retiring Republican senator.
