New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday condemned rumors that President Donald Trump is getting involved in the race to defeat his candidacy to become the Big Apple’s first socialist leader. 

“This is… about an affront to our democracy, an affront to what makes so many of us proud to be Americans, that we choose our own leaders, not that they get to pick themselves, not that they get to be picked by the president of the United States,” Mamdani said. “We know that this city will decide its own future, and we know that it is New Yorkers that we will turn to make that decision in November, not the White House in Washington, D.C.”

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His words come after Politico and the New York Times reported this week that the Trump administration had contacted New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Curtis Sliwa, who are running against Mamdani, and floated federal positions for them if they agreed to drop out of the race. Both Sliwa and Adams have refuted the reports, which allege the Trump administration believes clearing the field could consolidate support for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s campaign. 

“I am angry. I’m angry because so often we think of this solely in terms of the dynamics of politics,” Mamdani said during a press conference. “But the reason that so many New Yorkers are fed up with politics as they know it is because of news like this, backroom deals, corrupt agreements, all of which serve to increase the sense of disaffection and despair as it pertains to how people feel about politics across this country, and to know that having defeated Andrew Cuomo by 13 points, having won the votes of close to 600,000 New Yorkers, has only been understood by that former government as an invitation to collaborate with Donald Trump.” 

As it stands, some Republicans fear the campaign could be Mamdani’s to win because the race is split four ways between him, Adams, Cuomo, and Sliwa. Independent mayoral candidate Jim Walden dropped out of the race on Wednesday, urging other candidates “trailing in the polls” to suspend their campaigns and allow one contender a better chance of challenging Mamdani in November to defeat his chances of governing the country’s largest city. 

Adams and Cuomo are both running on independent lines and are viewed as the leading contenders to Mamdani. Sliwa is campaigning as a Republican and is unlikely to make a competitive challenge to the socialist, whose rise has alarmed moderates on both sides of the aisle. 

Although polling looks fairly grim for the candidates opposing Mamdani, the Trump administration reportedly believes Cuomo has a better chance of defeating him than Adams, despite the former governor losing to the socialist congressman in the city’s Democratic primary earlier this year. A recent poll showed Mamdani winning the race in nearly every scenario except a head-to-head matchup with Cuomo.

Trump said in July that Cuomo has “a shot” of winning if he runs a “tough” campaign. White House officials have declined to comment to media outlets about the veracity of reports that the Trump administration floated a job offer to Adams at the Department of Housing and Urban Development in exchange for bowing out of his reelection bid.

In the wake of reports that Adams was offered a federal position during a Monday trip to Florida, where the president maintains a private residence, the mayor said Wednesday that he met with “several elected officials” during the visit but said the question of whether he would take a job in the Trump administration was “hypothetical.”

“If there’s any changes in this race, I will announce that,” the incumbent mayor said. “Whenever I make a move, I’ll make an announcement.”

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Cuomo said Thursday that his staff has not been in touch with Trump to “clear the field” for him to beat Mamdani in November.

“I read the rumors, but no, it is up to Mayor Adams whether or not he wants to run or get out of the race,” Cuomo said during a campaign stop. “If he doesn’t want to run, then he’ll decide what to do next in his career.”