BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
- President Donald Trump said New York City’s incoming mayor, Zohran Mamdani, is “off to a bad start.”
- Trump had threatened to withhold federal funding if Mamdani was elected.
- The president had backed former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
President Donald Trump slammed incoming New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday.
The Democratic socialist addressed the president in his victory speech on Tuesday night: “Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up.” Mamdani referenced Trump in regard to his plans as mayor to address issues such as bad landlords, corruption, and labor protection.
“Hear me, President Trump, when I say this: To get to any of us, you will have to go through all of us,” Mamdani said.
Trump told Fox News on Wednesday that it was “a very angry speech.”
“I’m the one who sort of has to approve a lot of things coming to him, so he’s off to a bad start,” he said.
Trump equivocated on whether he wanted Mamdani and New York City to succeed.
“He has to be a little bit respectful of Washington because if he’s not, he doesn’t have a chance of succeeding,” he said.
Speaking at a Miami conference on Wednesday, the president said the Florida city could be a refuge for “those fleeing communism in New York City.”
“We lost a little bit of sovereignty last night in New York, but we’ll take care of it, don’t worry,” Trump said in Miami.
Mamdani’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider about Trump’s remarks.
On the eve of the election, Trump endorsed Mamdani’s opponent, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a Truth Social post, stating that he’d “much rather see a Democrat” win rather than a “communist with no experience and a Record of COMPLETE AND TOTAL FAILURE.”
Mamdani is a Democratic socialist.
The president threatened in his post to withhold federal funding outside the “very minimum as required” to his “beloved first home.”
Trump officially moved away from New York City in 2019 when he switched his primary residence from Manhattan to Palm Beach, Florida — home of his Mar-a-Lago resort.
But the president, who was born in Queens in 1946, has deep roots in the city.
Trump’s real estate empire began in Queens and later expanded to Manhattan, where a 25-year-old Trump took over the family business and renamed it the Trump Organization.
By the 1980s, the Trump name had become synonymous with New York City’s era of excess wealth and opulence. Trump Tower became a permanent fixture of the New York skyline in 1983.
When Trump announced his move to Palm Beach for his permanent residence in October 2019, the president wrote at the time that he was “treated very badly by the political leaders of both the city and state.”
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