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New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani took aim at President Donald Trump in a Thursday press conference amid a report that the president is weighing getting involved in the race.
“Donald Trump has not called me,” Mamdani told reporters on Thursday in New York City.
“I’ve said that my approach to Washington will not be a reflexive one, it is one that will be in opposition to Donald Trump’s administration when it comes for New Yorkers, when it comes at the expense of the welfare of the people that I’m seeking to serve,” Mamdani continued.
“If the president and the administration is looking to work for the benefit of dollars, which is what he spent so much of his campaign speaking about. That is a different conversation if he wants to actually act upon the cheaper groceries. But he told us he would deliver. That is a different conversation. But what threatens the president so much about my campaign and our movement is the fact that it showcases the way in which he’s betrayed the very people that we are seeking to serve.”
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NYC socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks at a press conference (Fox)
Trump, according to a New York Times report this week, recently spoke on the phone with Cuomo and has been talking with associates about who has the best chance to beat Mamdani between Cuomo, current mayor Eric Adams, and Republican Curtis Sliwa.
When asked what Mamdani would tell Trump if the president called, he said, “I will tell Donald Trump the same thing I’m telling you right now. That’s what makes me different than Andrew Cuomo. Whatever I say on a sidewalk, I say in a press conference, I say in the morning, it’s the same agenda. It’s fighting for the same people. And I will make that case to everyone. What I will not do, however, is pick up the phone to call Donald Trump, to ask how we can work together to defeat the will of Democrats across this. And. That’s what Andrew Cuomo did.”
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Former New York Governor and independent candidate for NYC Mayor Andrew Cuomo attends the funeral of slain NYPD officer Didarul Islam at Parkchester Jame Masjid on July 31, 2025. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Cuomo and Mamdani have been sparring over Trump in recent days, with Mamdani railing against the idea of Trump trying to help Cuomo.
“As usual, you’re short on facts and long on nonsense,” Cuomo posted on X in response to an attack from Mamdani about potentially working with Trump in the race. “And while I’m here, let’s be real – Donald Trump would go through you like a hot knife through butter. You would be a dream come true to the Republican party.”
Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi told the New York Times, “As far as I know, they have not discussed the race.”
In the press conference, Mamdani went on to say that his administration will be “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare.”
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President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on Aug. 1, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“And you don’t need to take me at my word or take Andrew Cuomo at his,” Mamdani said. “You need only look at the actions of the Trump administration since I won the Democratic primary. How else can you describe a president who has proposed de-naturalizing the Democratic nominee of New York City? How else can you describe a president who has sought to entertain suggestions of deporting me, of arresting me, of taking control of the city over the will of New Yorkers? Those are the actions of a president who is afraid of the fact that I will actually deliver in a manner where he is simply betrayed.”
