Trump endorses Cuomo against Mamdani in New York mayoral race, threatens to cut funds

New York: US President Donald Trump has warned on the eve of Tuesday’s election that if Zohair Mamdani, the toxically divisive Democratic Party candidate, becomes the city’s mayor, he will cut funds to it.

Mamdani, a radical member of the Democratic Socialists, is running on the Democratic Party ticket, having won the party nomination in June, defeating former Governor Andrew Cuomo and sitting Mayor Eric Adams.

“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”, Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social.

This is because with a “Communist” as mayor, “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”, he said.

Crossing party lines as a realist, Trump endorsed Cuomo, a Democrat who is running as an independent, rather than the Republican Party’s candidate Curtis Sliwa, the controversial founder of a vigilante group to patrol the city’s transit system.

A vote for Sliwa, Trump wrote, “is a vote for Mamdani”.

“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”, he added.

Mamdani bristled at being called a “communist” during the campaign, and his supporters and media sympathisers vehemently deny it, but he has advocated a distinctly communist line and strategy.

In an interaction with his group, the Democratic Socialists of America, he said, “Our end goal, seizing the means of production”.

That – government take-over of industries and businesses – is a cornerstone of communism, and a classic Marxian strategy is to publicly play it down while running for elections, hoping to ultimately capture national power.

“His principles have been tested for over a thousand years, and never once have they been successful”, Trump said of Mamdani’s ideology.

“It is my strong conviction that New York City will be a Complete and Total Economic and Social Disaster should Mamdani win”, he wrote.

Endorsing Cuomo, he said, “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’s support for Cuomo is a double-edged sword as it can turn off some moderate Democrats who may be inclined to vote for him, while it can also bring some Republican votes to Cuomo.

The city’s voters are split three ways, and if Cuomo’s and Sliwa’s votes are taken together, they outnumber Mamdani’s.

The RealClearPolitics average of opinion polls has Mandani at 46.1 per cent, Cuomo at 31.8 per cent, and Sliwa trailing at 16.3 per cent.

A communally divisive force, Mamdani supports Khalistan and participated in a Khalistani rally where they chanted hateful slogans against Hindus.

His anti-Israel statements and participation in protests have verged on anti-Semitism, according to some.

The rise of 34-year-old Mamdani, with no experience but a stint as state assemblyman, an activist with South Asian group Chhaya, and a rapper, was propelled by Trump’s unpopularity in his one-time home, New York City.

Mamdani and his supporters have been taunting Cuomo over Trump’s endorsement.

Cuomo, who has been coy about Trump’s earlier statements supportive of him, said after his endorsement, “The president is right. A vote for Sliwa is a vote for Mamdani”.

Many Democrats are also wary of Mamdani, fearing that if he wins, moderate Democrats in swing states would be tarred by party association with a radical in he mid-term elections next year.

Apparently, for this reason, former President Barack Obama, who was campaigning for the Democratic Party candidate for governor in neighbouring New Jersey, has not endorsed Mamdani, and neither have the Democratic Party’s Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and lawmakers.

Mamdani won the party’s nomination in June with promises of free buses, freezing rents and increasing taxes on the rich, as well as claiming he would arrest Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and boycott Prime Minister Narendra Modi if they visit the city.

He has also refused to disown “global jihad”, the slogan associated with Islamic terrorism.

He is the son of Mira Nair, who comes from a Hindu family, although her current religious affiliation is not known, and an Ugandan Shia Muslim said to be of Indian descent, Mahmood Mamdani.

Mamdani has opted for his father’s religion and claims to be South Asian, while also saying sometimes he is African American.

IANS