Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump on Tuesday renewed his threat to cut off federal funds to New York City if Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani wins next month’s mayoral election.
The president compared federal support for New York to U.S. aid to Argentina, saying funding depends on adopting favorable policies.
“It’s a little like New York. We have a problem, we have a communist who’s 33 years old, he doesn’t know a damn thing, he’s never worked a day in his life. And he’s sort of caught on. I’m not going to send a lot of money to New York. I don’t have to,” President Trump said.
Mamdani, 33, a Muslim born in Uganda, defeated Andrew Cuomo in the spring Democratic primary. He will face Cuomo, who is running as an independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa in November’s general election. Current Mayor Eric Adams dropped out of the race last month.
“The money comes all through the White House and if they’re going to be sending us stupid policies, communist policies, which is proven for thousands of years doesn’t work. We don’t have to prove it again. We’re not going to ruin one of our great cities. We will make that great, we will clean up the crime in about 30 days. It took 12 days to do Washington, D.C., so New York is bigger,” Trump said.
Mamdani has rejected accusations of communism and calls himself a “democratic socialist.” His platform includes free bus service, a $30 minimum wage and city-owned grocery stores.
Trump issued similar warnings last month, prompting Mamdani to mock the president’s comments.
“I think that Donald Trump is going through the stages of grief. He began with denial, where he said that there was no way we could win this race and that he would use every tool at his disposal to ensure that that was the case,” Mamdani said.
A Quinnipiac University poll released last week shows Mamdani leading the three-way contest with 46 percent support. Cuomo trails with 33 percent.