President Trump may no longer be a New York voter, but he has not given up a lifelong interest in the state’s political affairs. So on Tuesday night, he was keeping close tabs on the primary results and seizing on the outcome to brand the democratic socialist victors as “communists.”
“America the Beautiful will NEVER be a Communist Country!!!” he wrote on social media just after 2:30 on Wednesday morning.
It was one of the many posts the president put out as the results rolled in and democratic socialists claimed two House seats and scored down-ballot victories.
The president’s commentary also offered a window into Republicans’ strategy of trying to promote the most liberal Democrats as representative of the entire party heading into the midterm elections, where Democrats hope to take control of one, if not both, chambers of Congress.
“Many Communists running in badly failing Blue States,” Mr. Trump wrote earlier in the evening. “The votes seem to have them doing quite well against each other. The bad news is that history has conclusively shown that the downtrodden States that they will soon be running will ONLY GET WORSE.”
But Mr. Trump made no mention of the biggest winner of the night: Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York. The mayor took huge political risks in the primaries, endorsing against two sitting members of Congress and selecting a candidate in open race who was opposed by the city’s political establishment and major labor unions.
Despite their vast disagreements, Mr. Trump and Mr. Mamdani have developed a relatively friendly rapport. They put on a remarkable display of cooperation during an Oval Office meeting last year, and the two remain in communication. The president had painted Mr. Mamdani as a dangerous extremist during the mayoral campaign, but he has since praised him and promised to help him succeed.
Mr. Trump also relished in the defeat of two of his longstanding rivals, George T. Conway III and Representative Dan Goldman.
Mr. Conway, who was married to Kellyanne Conway, one of Mr. Trump’s campaign managers in 2016, finished fifth in a Democratic primary to represent large swaths of Manhattan in Congress. Mr. Conway was a Republican for most of his life and was considered for administration jobs in Mr. Trump’s first term. He then became a prominent critic of Mr. Trump and registered as a Democrat.
“This is a truly unattractive person, both inside and out,” the president wrote on social media. “Have a nice life, George!”
Mr. Goldman, who lost to Brad Lander, an ally of Mr. Mamdani, rose to political prominence as a top lawyer for the Democrats during the first impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump in 2019. Mr. Lander won by a wide margin in a race that was defined by the candidates’ differing stances on the war in Gaza.
“Weak and pathetic Congressman Dan Goldman just lost, BIG!” Mr. Trump wrote on social media. “I guess people didn’t like him illegally targeting President TRUMP. In any event, this jerk is finally GONE!”
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