New York/Washington, Nov 4 (PTI) US President Donald Trump has warned voters that New York City will be a “complete and total economic and social disaster” and its "survival" will be at risk if Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the mayoral race, as he officially endorsed former governor Andrew Cuomo for the city's top post.
In a post on Truth Social on election eve on Monday, Trump also threatened that he will send only the minimum-required federal funds to New York City if Mamdani wins the election and becomes the mayor.
“If Communist candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the election for mayor of New York City, it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing federal funds, other than the very minimum as required, to my beloved first home, because of the fact that, as a Communist, this once great city has ZERO chance of success, or even survival! “It can only get worse with a Communist at the helm, and I don’t want to send, as president, good money after bad. It is my obligation to run the nation, and it is my strong conviction that New York City will be a Complete and Total Economic and Social Disaster should Mamdani win,” Trump said on Truth Social.
In an official endorsement of former New York State governor Cuomo in the final stretch of the mayoral election, Trump 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!” Indian-descent Mamdani, 34, born in Uganda and raised in NYC, is a New York State Assembly member and Democratic socialist running for mayor.
He will face-off against Cuomo, who is running as an independent candidate, and the Republican nominee, Curtis Sliwa, on the ballots on Tuesday.
Slamming Mamdani, Trump said his principles have been tested for over a thousand years, and never once have they been successful.
“I would much rather see a Democrat, who has had a record of success, WIN, than a Communist with no experience and a record of COMPLETE AND TOTAL FAILURE,” Trump said.
Describing Mamdani as a “nothing” in his role as an Assemblyman, Trump said he "ranked at the bottom of the class and, as the mayor of potentially, again, the greatest city in the world, HE HAS NO CHANCE to bring it back to its former glory!” “We must also remember this – a vote for Curtis Sliwa (who looks much better without the beret!) is a vote for Mamdani,” Trump said.
Current NYC Mayor Eric Adams, whose administration has been plagued by scandals, dropped out of the mayoral race in September.
November 4 is election day across the US, with polls to be held from 6 am to 9 pm. The early voting period, which commenced October 25, ended on Sunday.
Mamdani, the son of acclaimed Indian filmmaker Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani, a Ugandan author of Indian ancestry, upset Cuomo in the Democratic primary race for NYC mayor and was declared victorious in June.
The Board of Elections has said that more than 735,000 people voted early in this election, which is about four times the number of ballots cast during the 2021 election.
Mamdani has emerged as the front-runner in the election race, and promised to “lower costs and make life easier” for New Yorkers as the city gets “too expensive”.
He has vowed that as the mayor, he will immediately freeze the rent for all stabilised tenants, and use every available resource to build the housing New Yorkers need and bring down the rent.
Trump has been critical of Mamdani, describing him as a “Communist” and “far worse than a Socialist”.
In an interview to CBS ‘60 Minutes’ on Sunday, Trump said Mamdani “will do a worse job” than former NYC mayor Bill de Blasio by far.
“And it's gonna be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York. Because if you have a Communist running New York, all you're doing is wasting the money you're sending there.
“So I don't know that he's won, and I'm not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other, but if it's gonna be between a bad Democrat and a Communist, I'm gonna pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you,” Trump said in the interview.
This report includes content sourced from Press Trust of India (PTI), edited for clarity and context.
