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New York mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani accused Donald Trump of targeting him to distract from policy failures, particularly those affecting working-class Americans.
File photos of Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump (Source: AP)
As the feud between US President Donald Trump and New York’s Democratic nominee for mayor, Zohran Mamdani, spiralled on Wednesday, the latter has now alleged Trump was attacking him as the President was “desperate to distract from his war”.
The mayor, speaking to reporters, also alleged the US President has “betrayed the working class Americans” and that Trump’s legislation would take healthcare away from people.
“Yesterday, Donald Trump said that I should be arrested, that I should be deported, that I should be de-naturalised, and he said those things about me, someone who stands to be the first immigrant mayor of this city in generations, someone who would also be the first Muslim and the first South Asian mayor in the city’s history,” Mamdani said while addressing reporters.
“…Less so because of who I am, because of where I come from, because of how I look or how I speak, and more so because he wants to distract from what I fight for,” Mamdani said.
“I fight for working people. I fight for the very people that have been priced out of this city, and I fight for the same people that he said he was fighting for. This is the same President who ran on a campaign of cheaper groceries, who ran on a campaign about easing a suffocating cost of living crisis, and ultimately, it is easier for him to fan the flames of division than to acknowledge the ways in which he has betrayed those working class Americans, not just in the city, but across this country.”
“And the ways in which he continues to betray them, because we know that he would rather speak about me than speak about the legislation that he is shepherding through Washington, DC, legislation that will quite literally take healthcare away from Americans, legislation that will steal food from the hungry, legislation that looks to build upon one of the largest transfers of wealth we’ve seen in recent history in his first administration, and do it once again for the very Americans who already have enough,” Mamdani alleged.
“We should be fighting for those who do not have what they need to live a dignified life. That is what I will do, and I am thankful to have the protection and to have the support of so many New Yorkers who have stood up and said how unacceptable this is, including our governor, including members of the labour movement,” he added.
“And ultimately what I feel for is that if this is what Donald Trump and his administration feel comfortable about saying, about the Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City, imagine what they feel comfortable saying and doing about immigrants whose names they don’t even know,” Mamdani said.
Donald Trump is attacking me because he is desperate to distract from his war on working people. We must and we will fight back. pic.twitter.com/pKEwnijJaG— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) July 2, 2025
DONALD TRUMP VS ZOHRAN MAMDANI
The US President has in recent days escalated his attacks against the 33-year-old democratic socialist, and threatened to arrest Mamdani, to deport him, and even to take over the country’s largest city if he wins the general election in November.
“As President of the United States, I’m not going to let this Communist Lunatic destroy New York. Rest assured, I hold all the levers and have all the cards,” Trump wrote in a message on his Truth Social site Wednesday morning.
“I’ll save New York City, and make it ‘Hot’ and ‘Great’ again, just like I did with the Good Ol’ USA!” he added.
Since Mamdani’s win over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, the Republicans have repeatedly highlighted his most controversial past comments and positions, casting him as dangerous, a communist, and an antisemite, and trying to tie him to all other Democratic officials.
The attacks have also included intense criticism of his platform, as well as blatantly xenophobic and Islamophobic attacks.
Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.
Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.
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