President Trump speaks to the press before departing the White House to visit Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” on July 1.
Photo: Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images
On Tuesday, Zohran Mamdani’s victory over Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for New York mayor became official, setting up the party’s nominee for a potential four-way race for City Hall this fall. Within hours, President Donald Trump threatened to arrest Mamdani depending on his future actions as mayor and signaled support for one of his general-election opponents.
During an unrelated press conference in Florida, Trump was asked about Mamdani and his past pledge to refuse to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement if elected mayor. The president issued a stark threat: “Well, then we’ll have to arrest him. Look, we don’t need a communist in this country, but if we have one, I’m going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation.”
In addition to repeating his false refrain that Mamdani is a communist, Trump promoted unfounded claims that Mamdani, a naturalized citizen who was born in Uganda and raised in New York from a young age, is breaking immigration laws. “A lot of people are saying he’s here illegally. We’re gonna look at everything,” Trump said, one day after the Justice Department announced it was expanding his immigration crackdowns to include naturalized citizens who have committed crimes.
The president kept up his rhetoric against Mamdani on Wednesday, writing on TruthSocial, “As President of the United States, I’m not going to let this Communist Lunatic destroy New York. Rest assured, I hold all the levers, and have all the cards. I’ll save New York City, and make it ‘Hot’ and ‘Great’ again, just like I did with the Good Ol’ USA!”
On Tuesday, Mamdani dismissed Trump’s comments as a failed attempt to intimidate him and others:
Some local leaders have already begun to come to Mamdani’s defense in the wake of Trump’s comments. Governor Kathy Hochul, who has yet to officially endorse Mamdani, said on social media, “I don’t care if you’re the President of the United States, if you threaten to unlawfully go after one of our neighbors, you’re picking a fight with 20 million New Yorkers — starting with me.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who has also refrained from endorsing Mamdani outright, told Trump Wednesday to “stop lying about Assemblyman Mamdani.”
“He is neither a communist nor a lunatic. And New York City doesn’t need to be saved by a wannabe King,” he said.
During that same press conference on Tuesday, Trump weighed in further on the mayor’s race in his hometown, offering praise for Mayor Eric Adams, who is now running as an independent since dropping out of the Democratic primary. “It’s been a long time since a Republican won the city. But you would think that a Republican would be able to win. Or you have a good independent running, Mayor Adams, who’s a very good person,” Trump said.
Notably, Trump alluded to the federal corruption case that had long loomed over Adams’s chances for reelection until the Justice Department ordered the charges against him dismissed with prejudice, a controversial move that roiled the agency and prompted mass resignations among its ranks of prosecutors.
“I helped him out a little bit. He had a problem,” Trump said. “He made a statement to the effect of, ‘This is terrible. New York City can’t have all these immigrants come in.’ And he was indicted the following day. And I said, ‘Well, that was a phony indictment.’ And it was a phony indictment.”
For his part, Adams opted not to condemn the president’s threats against Mamdani when asked by reporters Wednesday, suggesting that it amounted to a distraction from the work he’s doing as mayor. “Everyone is going to try to pull me off of the record of providing for this city. They’re gonna have a mic in my face, ‘Are you gonna do this? Are you gonna do this? Are you gonna do this?,’” he said. “Let me tell you what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna deliver for New Yorkers.”
He continued, “Look at my record. Go Google me and then you can get the answer to the question.”
