On the eve of New York City’s high-stakes mayoral election, US President Donald Trump warned that the city would face a “complete and total economic and social disaster” if Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani won, while officially endorsing former governor Andrew Cuomo for the top post.
In a fiery post on Truth Social on Monday, Trump said, “If Communist candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the election for mayor of New York City, it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing federal funds, other than the very minimum as required, to my beloved first home, because of the fact that, as a Communist, this once great city has ZERO chance of success, or even survival.”
Calling Mamdani’s potential victory a threat to the city’s “survival,” Trump added, “It can only get worse with a Communist at the helm, and I don’t want to send, as president, good money after bad. It is my strong conviction that New York City will be a complete and total economic and social disaster should Mamdani win.”
Trump, a Republican and native New Yorker, crossed party lines to endorse Cuomo, an independent candidate and former Democratic governor.
“Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job. He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!” he wrote.
Trump also said a vote for Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa would effectively help Mamdani.
In a CBS ‘60 Minutes’ interview, Trump reiterated that he preferred “a bad Democrat” like Cuomo over a “Communist” like Mamdani, saying, “It’s gonna be hard for me as president to give a lot of money to New York… all you’re doing is wasting the money you’re sending there.”
Trump’s intervention came as Mamdani, a 34-year-old state assembly member of Ugandan-Indian descent, entered election day as the front-runner.
His campaign has promised to “lower costs and make life easier” for New Yorkers by freezing rents and expanding affordable housing. Mamdani defeated Cuomo in the Democratic primary in June.
Responding to Trump’s remarks, Mamdani told CNN, “You can clearly see that Donald Trump is threatened by our campaign. He’s threatened by it because, like his, we’ve diagnosed the crisis in working-class New Yorkers’ lives — the cost of living. But unlike him, we’re actually going to deliver on that.”
Mamdani accused Trump of trying to undermine working Americans, saying, “It’s not Donald Trump’s to decide which city or state will get what money. This is the money that New Yorkers are owed, and this is the money that we’re going to fight for.”
At a campaign event, Mamdani also linked Trump’s endorsement of Cuomo to shared political interests, saying, “They (Trump and Cuomo) share the same donors, they share the same small vision, they share the same sense of impunity… This is the man that Donald Trump wants to be the next mayor of New York City, and not because he’ll be good for New Yorkers but because he’ll be good for Donald Trump.”
Cuomo, once a powerful Democratic figure who resigned in 2021 following sexual harassment allegations, is now running as an independent. The city’s outgoing mayor, Eric Adams, dropped out of the race in September amid scandals.
Tuesday’s election will pit Mamdani, Cuomo, and Sliwa against each other. The New York City Board of Elections reported that more than 735,000 people voted early — nearly four times the number in 2021 — in what is shaping up to be one of the city’s most consequential elections in years.