You say Trump never believed on mandates, yet he thinks Cuomo, who had some of the strictest mandate, did better than Desantis who didn’t. That makes it sound like Trump thinks mandates were a better choice than not.
Trump didn't say that Cuomo did a better job.
Trump did say that one statistic, the total number of total deaths was "even" worse than the Cuomo number of total deaths which was "fourth" worst in the country. That's hardly praising Cuomo.
Your point about Florida residents having an older average age, which effects the relevancy of the statistic that Trump used IS correct.