Trump gives backhanded compliment to AOC, says he’d be ‘nice to her’ if they met
Doocy: Do you have anything nice to say about AOC?
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 21, 2025
Trump: Her philosophy's so bad, she's got a little spunk. She's got a little something that's good. Joe Crowley, she ran against him, and I said, you're going to lose unless you go out and campaign… pic.twitter.com/vFNIyBDw4O
WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump reluctantly gave a somewhat backhanded compliment to Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during an exclusive interview on 21 September.
The president’s comments reflected his usual style of mixing praise with pointed jabs.
Donald Trump's mixed comment on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
“Her philosophy’s so bad; she’s got a little spunk. She’s got a little something that’s good,” Trump said during his exclusive interview on the debut episode of Fox News' 'The Sunday Breafing'.
Referring to her 2018 race against Joe Crowley, he said, "Joe Crowley, she ran against him, and I said, ‘You know, Joe, you’re going to lose this thing unless you go out and campaign,” he continued. “She’s got a little something, but her philosophy is bad for the country.”
Responding to the recent Axios report, where Ocasio-Cortez is eyeing the presidency or Senate in 2028, Trump said, “I don’t think her philosophy can come close to winning.”
Ocasio-Cortez, a socialist left, made headlines in 2018 when she beat Crowley, a top Democrat, then the No 4 House Dem, in a primary for her Bronx and Queens-based seat. She was working as a local bartender then.
She even received praise from Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who, in her upcoming memoir, '107 Days', described AOC as having a “joyful-warrior vibe” and resonating with working-class voters.
Donald Trump's response to Kamala Harris' description
Senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy, the co-anchor of the show, pointed out in the book how Harris described Trump as a nice person despite their bitter campaign against each other.
Reacting to this, he said, “I thought Kamala would’ve done a better job than she did in terms of running, because we really won by a lot. But I was very nice.”
Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, both won the popular vote and the electoral college in the 2024 November 5 election. Harris, the then Vice President, became the Democratic Party’s nominee after Joe Biden announced on July 21 that he wouldn’t be running for a second term, 107 days before the election.
“I don’t think I’ve ever met AOC, but I would be nice to her also. I’m basically a nice person. People just don’t know that, he added.
AOC and Donald Trump's history of bitter rivalry
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been one of the loudest critics of the president in Congress, and both have been brutal towards each other in the past.
When Trump was hit with a bullet, which came within a quarter inch of killing him during a rally in Butler, she called him almost a fascist. She even accused him of racism, xenophobia, and more.
Trump, in turn, mocked her intelligence, stating “one of the dumbest people in Congress” and calling her “stupid.”
