Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is the leader of the Democratic Party during an interview on Tuesday.
Speaking to CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin, Bessent said, “I was in the room, and I think that you’ve got to have some admiration for a candidate who ran a campaign the way he did. It was a great, great campaign.”
“He is clearly the leader of the Democratic Party now. And I think it speaks to how open-minded the president is, that he invited him into the Oval,” Bessent said.
The treasury secretary pointed out that Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., did not endorse Mamdani in the mayoral race. Other key New York Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Gov. Kathy Hochul, did endorse the mayor-elect.
DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST CALLS MAMDANI’S TRUMP MEETING ‘WEAK’ AFTER TOUGH CAMPAIGN TALK
“President Trump wants the best for New Yorkers,” Bessent added. “I can tell you, my impression of the mayor-elect is he’s a young man with a lot of old ideas that have never worked. Point to one example where policies like his have led to anything other than a decline.”
He also said it was easy to run a campaign, but actually governing — “keeping people safe, picking up the trash, making the subways run on time” — was a whole other challenge.
“We’ll see,” Bessent added.
Sorkin also asked Democratic strategist James Carville about who he saw as the leader of the party, noting Bessent’s argument that it was Mamdani.
“No one represents the party. The only person that can represent the party is a presidential nominee, who will be chosen by the party members who vote in the primaries,” Carville argued.
Trump said Mamdani was a “rational person” during a press conference after their meeting on Friday.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE
Trump also said they both wanted New York City to do well.
“We have one thing in common,” Trump said Friday. “We want this city of ours that we love to do very well. And I wanted to congratulate the mayor. He really ran an incredible race against, you know, a lot of smart people, starting with the early primaries against some very tough people, very smart people. And he beat them, and he beat them easily. And I congratulated him, and we talked about some things in very strong common, like housing and getting housing built and food and prices.”
