Rudy Giuliani launches bizarre anti-trans rant over Zohran Mamdani’s child care plan

This story originally appeared on The Advocate.

The name on every disgraced politician’s lips is gonna be … Mamdani.

In a nonsensical rant worthy of an IRL “alright, grandpa, let’s get you to bed,” former New York City mayor and flop presidential also-ran Rudy Giuliani used his soap box (also known as his web show America’s Mayor Live) to lambast current mayor Zohran Mamdani. In a segment uploaded on August 5, 2026, Giuliani suggested that Mamdani’s plan for expanding universal pre-K was actually a ploy to turn children transgender.

(That’s actually putting it delicately. In reality, Giuliani, like manyRepublicans, made explicit and violent references to children’s genitals in order to make his point.)

“And he wants to have free, free pre-K starting at 6 months old. Six months old. What the hell is he going to teach them at 6 months old?” Giuliani said. “How to hate the parents, that's what he’s going to teach them. ‘Hey, did you ever think of being a girl, kid? Not bad being a girl. Come on, it doesn’t hurt to chop your penis off.’”

- YouTube

Giuliani’s rant came with plenty of old-hat ad hominem attacks on Mamdani, as well, including saying the current mayor has “never had a job,” and that he’s an “out-and-out communist” who wants “free everything.”

“Am I being a little crude to make the point? You’re damn right I am. Is it a point that needs to be made dramatically? You're damn right it does,” Giuliani added.

After a lengthy amount of time spent ranting about communism and Democrats, Giuliani returned to the idea of trans identity, though he incorrectly referred to trans people as transvestites.

“You teach them that it’s OK to be a transvestite. In fact, you have transvestites come to school and give lectures to show them it’s perfectly OK,” Giuliani said. “And if you want to change your — if you want to change your gender and you don’t want to tell your parents, perfectly — parents are the enemy.” He added, “I’m explaining to you Democrat philosophy that is ruining your children. This is the reason that they’re like they are.”

If Giuliani’s rant seems straight out of a Libs of TikTok feed, that’s because it is. Rather than being based in actual fact, his rhetoric seems sourced from the same place from which Trump gets his misinformation regarding schools and trans identity. Trump has been known to repeat the false claim that schools, despite many being unable to afford healthy lunches, are somehow paying for trans surgeries for children. (In reality, such procedures are almost never performed on minors at all.)

Mamdani has been a right-wing target for much of his ascendancy and mayoral tenure, not only for his left-wing politics, but also for his open embrace of trans people. During his time as mayor, he kicked off his first LGBTQ+ Pride Month with a “Trans Rights Are Human Rights” campaign and launched a $15 million investment in gender-affirming care by the end of June, following community pressure to deliver on campaign promises for expanded funding amid federal attacks.

Universal childcare for children above 3 years old was a key campaign promise of Mamdani’s, one which he delivered on quickly, even as the ultimate bill solidifying the program remains uncertain.

Giuliani’s attacks on Mamdani and harsh language around trans identity makes him one of several Republican politicians who has openly embraced drag before doubling down on transphobic rhetoric in the Trump era.

Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for Them’s newsletters.