Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic socialist nominee for mayor of New York City, promised on Thursday that his administration would be President Donald Trump’s “worst nightmare.”
“My administration would be Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” Mamdani said Thursday at a press conference.
“I’ve said that my approach to Washington will not be a reflexive one, it is one that will be in opposition to Donald Trump’s administration when it comes for New Yorkers, when it comes at the expense of the welfare of the people that I’m seeking to serve,” he said.
Commie Mamdani: “My administration would be Donald Trump’s worst nightmare.” pic.twitter.com/FfWkNL1LGW
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) August 7, 2025
Mamdani’s comments come as Trump is reportedly weighing getting involved in the Big Apple’s mayoral race to try and stop Mamdani from winning.
The New York state assemblyman representing parts of Queens won the Democratic primary in June in an upset that threw the New York City mayor’s race into chaos.
“What threatens the president so much about my campaign and our movement is the fact that it showcases the way in which he’s betrayed the very people that we are seeking to serve,” Mamdani said.
Mamdani said that Trump has not called him, and he accused his rival, former governor Andrew Cuomo, of working with Trump to defeat Mamdani.
“I will tell Donald Trump the same thing I’m telling you right now,” he said. “That’s what makes me different than Andrew Cuomo. Whatever I say on a sidewalk, I say in a press conference, I say in a board room, it’s the same agenda. It’s fighting for the same people. And I will make that case to everyone. What I will not do, however, is pick up the phone to call Donald Trump, to ask how we can work together to defeat the will of Democrats across this city. That’s what Andrew Cuomo did.”
Cuomo responded to the attack, saying Mamdani was “short on facts and long on nonsense.”
“And while I’m here, let’s be real- Donald Trump would go through you like a hot knife through butter. You would be a dream come true to the Republican party,” Cuomo posted on X.
As usual, you’re short on facts and long on nonsense.
And while I’m here, let’s be real- Donald Trump would go through you like a hot knife through butter. You would be a dream come true to the Republican party https://t.co/f3152riFGC pic.twitter.com/MZY0CTXNJw
— Andrew Cuomo (@andrewcuomo) August 6, 2025
“You don’t need to take me at my word or take Andrew Cuomo at his,” Mamdani said at the press conference. “You need only look at the actions of the Trump administration since I won the Democratic primary. How else can you describe a president who has proposed denaturalizing the Democratic nominee of New York City? How else can you describe a president who has sought to entertain suggestions of deporting me, of arresting me, of taking control of the city over the will of New Yorkers? Those are the actions of a president who is afraid of the fact that I will actually deliver in a manner where he has simply betrayed.”
Mamdani has described himself as a Democratic socialist and has previously called for the “abolition of private property” and “seizing the means of production,” key Marxist concepts.
He is running on a litany of controversial and expensive policies, including government-run grocery stores, free buses, free childcare, a rent freeze for more than two million New Yorkers living in rent-subsidized housing, and deploying mental health professionals rather than police in crises. Mamdani also wants to raise both income and corporate taxes.