Zohran Mamdani called out President Donald Trump for his reported interest in getting involved in New York City‘s mayoral race.
Trump has called former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in recent weeks, according to the New York Times, questioned associates about the race and Mamdani’s best prospective challenger, and surveyed polling to see who could have the best shot to beat the socialist.
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The state assemblyman seized on the news Thursday, using the opportunity to take aim at Cuomo and lay out his opposition to the Republican.
“The job of mayor is not to audition to be the jester for a want-to-be king,” Mamdani said. “It is to be the person who stands up for the values of this city, the fabric of this city, and the people of this city.”
Mamdani said he has not spoken to Trump but would not rule out speaking with him in the future.
“If the president and the administration is looking to work for the benefit of dollars — which is what he spent so much of his campaign speaking about — that is a different conversation, if he wants to actually act upon the cheaper groceries,” Mamdani said.
“But he told us he would deliver. That is a different conversation. But 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,” he added.
Some believe Cuomo is the best candidate to beat Mamdani, but the socialist beat Cuomo decisively in the mayoral primary by double-digits in June. Yet, as the Democratic nominee, Mamdani has the backing of most of the city’s major political figures.
While some establishment Democrats haven’t exactly signaled endorsements of Mamdani, they haven’t backed Cuomo or incumbent Mayor Eric Adams either. A recent poll showed the socialist beating the field with a majority of the vote.
Trump’s intervention in the race could be a sign of his preference for Cuomo, with whom he is familiar and has worked with when Cuomo was New York’s governor. Cuomo reportedly compared their relationship to a “dysfunctional marriage.”
“I think he wants to be accepted by New York City, and I think there’s an opportunity there,” Cuomo said. “I know, personally, he doesn’t want to fight with me. Personally, I don’t want to fight with him, right? So I don’t think he’s going to be eager to create a conflict with us.”
Cuomo’s spokesman, Rich Azzopardi, told the New York Times that Trump and Cuomo had not spoken “in some time” and that “as far as I know,” they had not discussed the race. Azzopardi believes Trump would prefer if Mamdani won.
“He believes Mamdani would serve as a political boon to Republicans nationwide in the midterms, symbolizing what he sees as the Democratic Party’s extremism,” he said.
Mamdani believes Cuomo’s communication with Trump is abhorrent.
“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. And that’s what Andrew Cuomo did,” he said.