I marvel that reporters can actually ask a question like this with a straight face. But then again, once you accept the fact that the question originates with Donald Trump, then everything makes a lot of sense. Or, at least as much sense as anything can make in a period in American history when it appears to the rest of the world that America has lost all her sense. Zohran Mamdani was asked to respond to one of Trump’s stranger allegations and here is how he replied.
Zohran Mamdani when asked about Donald Trump’s claim that he’s better looking. pic.twitter.com/j7aQNyUnZr
— Timmy Facciola (@TimmyFacciola_) November 3, 2025
That was a good response. Mamdani should be worried about the cost of living crisis. The rents in New York City are the highest in the country, although San Francisco is nipping on New York’s heels, since the AI boom has created a scenario where people are begging landlords to take envelopes of cash as deposits.
Trump worries about nonsense like ballrooms, at least Mamdani has his eye on the prize. And what will happen tomorrow? We can dust off the crystal ball and look. Karl Rove cautions Democrats not to be overly placid and reassured. I think Rove is right that you always campaign like you’re ten points down until the minute that the polls close. But that said, New Jersey and New York may yield some good results for Democrats tomorrow.
“In New York, we’re gonna get the gift that keeps on giving,” he said. “We’re gonna have a Democratic socialist mayor who wins in the low 50s or mid 50s, in a city where 62 percent of the eligible voters are registered Democrats, 22 percent are registered independents, and only 16 percent are Republicans, conservatives, or members of little fringe left-wing parties.”
CNN data analyst Harry Enten said last week that If Democrats sweep all three of the major races on Tuesday, it would only be the sixth time in 90 years they’ve accomplished the feat. Each of the past five times Democrats won all three elections, they went on to win a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in the following year’s midterm elections.
All this sounds good and I’m thrilled. Always bear in mind though that in the era of Trump the laws of political physics do not behave reliably. But do not think that’s a set up for Democratic doubt: it’s entirely possible that Karl Rove is underestimating what could happen both tomorrow and next November.
The enemies that Trump makes on a daily basis and the way that he undermines our stature in the world regularly could mean a real blowout both tomorrow and in 2026. Trump keeps yapping about his mandate. He has no mandate. Richard Nixon said he had a mandate, too, and based on the actual numbers that Nixon won his second term with, he could make that claim easier than Trump can.
But both Nixon and Trump are highly devisive figures and the fact that Trump won by the skin of his teeth in a lot of states does not mean that the country signed up for the ICE nightmare that has become normal life for us in 2025.
Tomorrow will be an interesting day. That prediction I make with full confidence. And good for Mamdani for a whole hearted laugh at Trump. The man is a screaming joke and nowhere so much as in New York City. The rest of us have had ten years of Trump, New Yorkers have had to put up with his shenanigans for four times that much and more.
