WASHINGTON (BN24) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to invoke federal authority to take over operations in New York City if Zohran Mamdani wins the mayoral election in November, calling the Democratic nominee a “communist” and warning that his leadership would fundamentally alter the city.
Speaking during a Cabinet meeting, Trump told The Post that Mamdani’s potential victory posed a threat to the city’s future and hinted at an aggressive intervention from the White House. “If a communist gets elected to run New York, it can never be the same,” Trump said. “But we have tremendous power at the White House to run places where we have to.”
The president, who has frequently clashed with New York City leadership throughout his political career, stopped short of specifying the legal mechanism by which he might assert control over the city, but emphasized, “New York City will run properly. I’m going to bring New York back. I love New York.”
Mamdani, 33, a state assemblyman and self-described democratic socialist, clinched the Democratic nomination on June 24 in a stunning primary upset that ousted former Governor Andrew Cuomo. The surprise victory has since reshaped the dynamics of the Nov. 4 general election. Trump, referencing Mamdani’s platform, claimed the candidate aimed to “take over” private grocery businesses like those owned by billionaire John Catsimatidis.
“[Catsimatidis] actually called me the other day,” Trump said. “He’s concerned, his stores are going to be taken from him.”
Though Trump stopped short of endorsing a specific candidate in the crowded mayoral race, he dismissed Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa’s chances while offering mild praise for the embattled incumbent, Eric Adams, whose re-election bid as an independent follows a federal corruption investigation that the Trump administration later dropped.
“You have Eric Adams, you have Cuomo, and you have Curtis Sliwa? Curtis runs every four years. He seems to be a fixture on the running scale,” Trump said, before adding, “[Mamdani] is not very capable, in my opinion. He’s a disaster.”
Mamdani currently leads in general election polling with 35%, followed by Cuomo at 29%, Sliwa at 16%, and Adams at 14%, according to a new American Pulse survey. His rise has prompted both celebration and concern among progressive circles and critics of his political ideology.
Vice President JD Vance, speaking privately at a California event over the weekend, said Mamdani’s success highlighted shifting voter demographics. “If President Trump’s victory in 2024 was rooted in a broad working and middle-class coalition, Mamdani’s coalition is almost the inverse of that,” Vance said, noting the New York candidate’s strength among high-income, highly-educated voters and his relative weakness among working-class and Black voters.
Trump’s threats to intervene in local governance did not end with New York. He also signaled a possible federal takeover of Washington, D.C., saying, “We want the city to run well,” and adding that the administration was “testing” the idea of asserting direct control over the capital.
The remarks echo Trump’s earlier efforts during his first term to curtail federal funding to Democratic-led cities he deemed insufficiently responsive to crime. But the president’s latest rhetoric raises the stakes as the 2024 election cycle unfolds, especially in cities that lean heavily Democratic.
With the general election just months away, Trump’s warnings signal a willingness to use federal power in unprecedented ways to influence local political outcomes—especially in cities where his critics are gaining ground. Whether that message will resonate with voters or provoke backlash remains to be seen.
