Trump Seething Over DNC Taunts From … Kathy Hochul?

Kathy Hochul on Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 20, 2024. Photo: Mark Peterson/Redux for New York Magazine

The first two nights of the 2024 Democratic National Convention have gone hard against Donald Trump. One of the montages described him as a serial cheater who “sexually abuses women.” They showed that photo of him palling around with Jeffrey Epstein. Hillary Clinton smiled and nodded as the crowd burst into a “lock him up” chant.

So naturally, on Wednesday morning Trump decided to hit back at … Kathy Hochul?

In a 7:55 a.m. post on Truth Social, he complained that the “very unpopular Governor of New York” was the “nastiest speaker” on Monday night, marveling, “Her total hatred, and statements made about me, had no bounds.”

Prior to this post, Trump had only put up two low-energy Truth Social posts reacting to the DNC; one was about “Radical Left protesters in Chicago” and the other accused Biden of delivering a “Speech full of LIES.” But this is the second time in 24 hours that he’s complained about Hochul.

She is not one of the most prominent governors in America, nor is she known as top-tier Trump antagonist. Hochul didn’t even have a very high-profile speaking spot on Monday; she spoke minutes before Kamala Harris’s surprise appearance kicked off the prime-time programming.

So why did her speech get under Trump’s skin? It probably has a lot to with the bit toward the end of his tirade about being “before a very biased and hateful New York Judicial System that is appointed and largely controlled by the Governor.”

Hochul did not appoint any of the judges or lead prosectors in the two major legal cases Trump faced in New York this year, the civil-fraud and the hush-money trials. But she did taunt Trump over those cases, and his alleged personality defects, in her DNC speech.

“Donald Trump was born a New Yorker but ended up a fraud, a philanderer, and a felon,” Hochul said. “He wasn’t raised with the New York values that I know. He never had to worry about child-care costs or groceries or rent He never had to worry about anything or any one but himself.”

She continued:

Trust me, America. If you think you’re tired of Donald Trump, talk to a New Yorker. We’ve had to deal with him for 78 long years. The fraud, the tax dodging, the sham university, the shady charities. We’ve seen him stiff contractors, rip off workers. He abuses women, brags about it, and then takes away their rights.

And New Yorkers are sick of it. It’s no wonder he had to flee to Mar-a-Lago. Sorry about that, Florida, sorry about that! Trump hasn’t spent that much time in New York lately, except to get convicted of 34 felonies. And that’s just fine with us. Because New York’s motto is “Excelsior,” ever upward, and Trump takes us ever downward.

Hochul’s remarks were surprisingly cutting for her, but they certainly weren’t the most memorable Trump takedowns from the convention. Wait until Trump hears Michelle Obama’s “Black jobs” quip and realizes that Barack Obama (probably) made a joke about his penis size!