Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, forcefully denounced President Trump on Wednesday for threatening to arrest him and repeating baseless claims that he immigrated to the United States illegally.
Speaking after a labor union rally in Manhattan, Mr. Mamdani said that he was running to make New York City a bulwark against “authoritarianism” in Washington. But he also argued that Mr. Trump was targeting him as a way of diverting attention from Republican plans to slash taxes for the rich and social safety net programs for the neediest.
“I fight for working people,” Mr. Mamdani said. “Ultimately, it is easier for him to fan the flames of division than to acknowledge he has betrayed those working-class Americans.”
The remarks, Mr. Mamdani’s first public comments since clinching his party’s nomination this week, offered an early glimpse at how the New York Democrat may try to blunt Mr. Trump’s extraordinary attacks and use them for his own purposes.
The victory by Mr. Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, over former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and other Democratic rivals has illustrated and even deepened the divisions in American politics, not always along party lines. But few responses have been as ugly or sustained as Mr. Trump’s.
“A lot of people are saying he’s here illegally,” Mr. Trump said on Tuesday. “We’re going to look at everything.”
When a reporter cited Mr. Mamdani’s pledge not to assist federal agents trying to arrest immigrants, Mr. Trump said, “Well, then we’ll have to arrest him” and promised he would be “watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation.”
Mr. Mamdani, a state assemblyman, is running to be the city’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor. He was born in Uganda, but moved to New York when he was 7 years old with his parents, a filmmaker and a professor. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2018.
Mr. Trump continued to attack Mr. Mamdani on Wednesday, writing on his social media platform that “I’m not going to let this Communist Lunatic destroy New York.”
“Rest assured,” the president added, “I hold all the levers and have all the cards.”
Democratic leaders, even some who have been reluctant to endorse Mr. Mamdani’s left-leaning campaign, lined up behind him in outrage on Wednesday.
“Stop lying about Assemblyman Mamdani,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House minority leader, wrote on social media.
“He is neither a communist nor a lunatic. And New York City doesn’t need to be saved by a wannabe King,” he added. “Besides, you are too busy destroying America with your One Big Ugly Bill to do anything else.”
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York called Mr. Trump’s threat “as outrageous as it is lawless.” She had to apologize to Mr. Mamdani herself on Monday for falsely claiming in a radio interview that he had made “references to global jihad.”
And Gov. Kathy Hochul had written on social media on Tuesday that “If you threaten to unlawfully go after one of our neighbors, you’re picking a fight with 20 million New Yorkers — starting with me.”
A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, who is still contemplating whether to continue his campaign in the general election on a third-party ballot line, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
There was one notable Democratic exception to the condemnation: Mayor Eric Adams, who is running for re-election as an independent in November.
Mr. Adams has slowly inched closer to Mr. Trump since last fall, repeatedly declining to criticize White House policies that other Democrats denounce. The Justice Department dropped federal corruption charges against the mayor earlier this year, in part so he could help enforce Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda.
On Tuesday, in the same remarks in which he threatened Mr. Mamdani, Mr. Trump said there was “a good independent running, Mayor Adams, who’s a very good person.”
Asked on Wednesday about Mr. Trump’s comments, Mr. Adams pointedly deflected the question.
“Everyone is going to try to pull me off of the record of providing for this city,” he said. “They’re going to have a mic in my face: ‘Are you going to do this? Are you going to do this?’ I don’t want to talk about this other stuff.”
He added: “Go Google me, and then you can get the answer to the question.”
Mr. Mamdani, at his event with union leaders representing hotel workers, nurses and doormen, said the mayor’s response was “unsurprising and quite sad.”
The candidate thanked Governor Hochul and the Police Department for helping ensure his safety in the face of violent threats against him and his family, but said he was concerned about other immigrants who were more vulnerable to federal law enforcement action.
“If this is what Donald Trump and his administration feel comfortable saying about the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, imagine what they feel comfortable saying and doing about immigrants whose names they don’t even know,” he said.
Nicholas Fandos is a Times reporter covering New York politics and government.
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