Fox News host Jesse Watters has christened New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani with a new nickname — and it’s unintentionally boosting Mamdani’s cool factor.
Watters has repeatedly referred to the progressive candidate as “Zohran the Destroyer”, a title that sounds less like an insult and more like the name of a comic book antihero or a heavy metal frontman.
A screenshot from Thursday night’s Jesse Watters Primetime quickly went viral, showing the bold chyron:
“ZOHRAN THE DESTROYER WRECKS DEM PARTY.”
The segment focused on backlash from centrist Democrats over Mamdani’s insurgent campaign and policy agenda. In a major upset, the democratic socialist defeated former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo — who has faced sexual misconduct allegations — in the Democratic primary for NYC mayor.
Watters questioned Mamdani’s platform with thinly veiled disdain:
“What’s Zohran the Destroyer got going for him?”
He went on to mock Mamdani’s backers and described the candidate as a “smooth-talking assassin.”
On The Five the next day, Watters quipped,
“Zohran the Destroyer is about to give Karl Marx a woke makeover — if Democrats don’t stop him.”
But instead of damaging Mamdani’s image, the nickname caught fire on social media, where many users joked that it actually made him sound “badass,” “epic,” and “like a video game boss.”
Whether Watters meant it as a dig or not, “Zohran the Destroyer” may end up being the most memorable campaign slogan Mamdani never asked for.
