Maeve Bidonde, Staff Writer
As the race for Mayor of New York City heated up and Election Day drew nearer, President Trump endorsed Andrew Cuomo and threatened to significantly cut federal funding for the city if Zohran Mamdani won the race. He posted his support for Cuomo on Truth Social Monday evening. BBC reports that the post said, “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!”
Prior to posting that, Trump stated that he would be wary of sending more than the bare minimum amount of funding to the city if Mamdani won the election. This held similarities to an interview Trump did on Saturday, where he referred to Mamdani as a communist, which is a label Mamdani does not agree with. In that interview, Trump said that Mamdani would make former mayor Bill de Blasio “look good.” He said, “I got to see de Blasio, how bad a mayor he was, and this man will do a worse job than de Blasio by far.”
According to The Guardian, Cuomo seemed to accept Trump’s endorsement before changing his mind. Cuomo said, “We need a mayor who can stand up to Donald Trump.” he continued by saying, “Trump will go through Mamdani like a hot knife through butter.” He even went as far as to echo Trump’s threat to withhold funding from New York City if Mamdani won the election.
Mamdani responded to the threat and endorsement of Cuomo by saying “address that threat for what it is: it is a threat. It is not the law. And too often, we treat everything that comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth as if it is already legal, just by virtue of who is saying it. This funding is not something that Donald Trump is giving us here in New York City. This is something that we are, in fact, owed in New York.”
According to USA Today Mamdani has floated the possibility that like other Democrat cities and states they could take legal action to get the funds from Trump and has even cited some successes other states and cities have had doing just that including Fresno California and North Carolina. Trump suggested arresting Mamdani and stripping him of his citizenship if he didn’t help with federal immigration enforcement. Mamdani was born in Uganda but he became a naturalized citizen in 2018.
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