Both the left and the right are agog over the bromance between Trump and Mamdani. That’s because they don’t understand New Yorkers. And they don’t understand gay New Yorkers.
Both Mamdani and Trump are New Yorkers, which carries its own cachet. While Mamdani isn’t gay, my gay friend says Trump acts like he wants to be a gay New Yorker. Are these reasons for his googly eyes at Mamdani during their press conference?
Trump loves Broadway theater and performance halls
Trump himself is a failed Broadway producer. Trump’s entire direct involvement in Broadway, other than as an audience member, was a failed attempt at producing in 1970. At the age of 23, when many people are just coming out, Trump invested $70,000 in the flop Paris Is Out!
That failure didn’t keep him from attending the Broadway hits he likes.
Which doesn’t include Hamilton, not even for the costumes and music. He should like the lyrics, if he ever listened to them, since some are crafted directly from the documents that began the United States of America. But then, he demonstrates no knowledge of those documents. He says he’s never liked Hamilton, which presumes he’s seen it.
If he has seen it, you’d think he’d realize he and King George have a lot in common. The taxing/tariffs, controlling and invading, of course. With that much in common, maybe he also shares the more than a hint of swish in the King George character.
What Broadways hits does he like?
Les Miserable.
Oh, the irony.
I’m guessing he doesn’t listen to or understand those lyrics, or the book the play is based on — revolution by the proletariat against the wealthy, ruling elite of France. Yet, what self-respecting gay New Yorker doesn’t love Les Miserable?
Trump also loves Phantom of The Opera, perhaps relating to the Phantom’s mask and cloak. Cloak and dagger and two-faced shenanigans being some of Trump’s signature moves. Kidnapping the young woman Christine, more than once, may appeal to him, as well, which argues against his wanting to be gay. Or maybe he just has a crush on the Phantom.
By hating on Hamilton, and complimenting other musicals, Trump yearns, like many famous past and current New Yorkers who are gay — think Truman Capote or Perez Hilton — to be the arbiter of the arts and entertainment. Unfortunately, you have to have good taste to become an arbiter of the arts.
Failing that,
Trump wants to be the arbiter of fashion, all the while dressing like a door-to-door salesman
Obviously, Mamdani is an attractive man. He’s well-dressed in a suit, so was in no danger of being lambasted by Trump and Vance over his clothing. Unlike Zelensky when he arrived wearing the outfit he swore to wear in solidarity with his military and people until the war ends. An outcome that looks less and less likely as Trump’s love affair with Putin continues.
I ask you, who but gay men, particularly gay New Yorkers, even notice another man’s clothing choices, much less comments on them. If you ask most straight men what their best friend was wearing the last time they hung out, they couldn’t tell you. Even if it was at lunch the same day.
On the other hand, Trump pays close attention to, and comments on, women’s fashion, a hallmark of many gay men, not just those in New York. My former boss, who is gay, bought me trendy jewelry, in hopes of upping my stylishness and therefore my success as an advertising executive. It worked.
Only New Yorkers are allowed to complain about New York
Gay New Yorkers may loudly complain about New York, as all residents of Manhattan do, but you better not chime in and bitch about it with them if you’re not from there and live there. Trump and Mamdani are New York City homeboys. They have the privilege of both loving and complaining about New York. Maybe they bonded over snark about their beloved city.
Or they may have bonded over the smug satisfaction of living in New York City. Every New York City dweller thinks the rest of us are bumpkins, but gay men especially fear ever being made to leave the mean streets to live in — horrors of horrors — the great swath of the uncultured U.S. It seems both the self-declared “populist” and the socialist both think of New York City as the center of the Universe.
Trump is obsessed by his image
A Time magazine photo of him exposing his sagging chin nearly undid him. As it would me, but I digress. He’s spent a lifetime seeking the camera, and painstakingly having his hair styled EXACTLY SO. If only he spent hours at the gym and wore fitted suits, he would be a stunning reflection of a gay man who cares about his appearance.
There are arguments against the concept of Trump sharing characteristics of a gay New Yorker
On the flip side, nobody suggests that Trump dresses well. “Off the rack” is an insult often applied to his clothing. Ill-fitting is another. No self-respecting gay New Yorker would wear ill-fitting clothing, even if they have to buy off the rack, or from the discount houses — which are excellent in New York. I’ve shopped in them. When a gay New Yorker buys off the rack or from discount houses, you can be sure he will have those clothes tailored to fit.
Never mind that he favours ill-fitting Brioni suits that went out of fashion in the ’80s and wears his hair in the style of a candy-floss Kangol hat. With typical grandiosity, Trump sees himself a fashion arbiter. His 2005 book, Think Like a Billionaire, slams custom-tailored suits as a waste of time.
You’ll also never find a gay man, particularly a New Yorker, who would bling his house out in fake gold. Or even real gold. How tacky. Or pave over a (gasp) rose garden to install a parking-lot-looking monstrosity of concrete.
My gay friend, who made the comment about Trump wanting to be a gay New Yorker, doesn’t dress like Mamdani — who wears suits beautifully. But that’s because my friend lives in a liberal conclave of Texas, with its notoriously laid back haberdashery. He fits in.
Another gay friend of mine always said he was a “Gay man with no fashion or decorating sense.” A “decorative” ship, made entirely of seashells — and not the pretty one — he once gave me, attests to his lack of the decorating gene. His cargo shorts and T-shirts prove the rest.
However, my two friends aren’t gay men in New York. So they have an excuse. Yet even they hate Trump’s suits.
Still, none of that explains Trump’s googly love eyes at Mamdani
Admittedly, it’s easy to fall in love with Mamdani. He looks good in a suit. He’s charismatic. He’s attractive. He is self-confident, not self-aggrandizing. And, he wants to help people. Real people. All of us, hurt by high grocery and other prices caused by tariffs, love him. Those who live in non-rent controlled housing in Manhattan, where rent prices rise exponentially and regularly, love him. But none of Mamdani’s ideals explain why Trump loves him.
Trump owns and builds buildings where people in New York City can’t afford to live. And he doesn’t care. In the 1980s, he kept Black people from living in those buildings. And he doesn’t care. Trump caused the higher prices on…well, everything. And he doesn’t care. So Mamdani didn’t win him over with his socialist democratic values.
Is it that Trump likes a winner, as long as that winner isn’t running against him?
That still doesn’t fully explain the googly eyes he gave Mamdani as he looked lovingly up at him.
A Trump who aspires to be the epitome of a gay New York man, explains his man crush on Mamdani as much as anything else anyone has put forth.
What’s your theory?
Thank you to Javier Weems, who gave me the idea and some of the comparisons, including the Capote/Hilton one.
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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