In a surprise twist to New York City’s mayoral race, President Donald Trump has endorsed independent candidate Andrew Cuomo while warning he may restrict federal funds to the city if Democratic frontrunner Zohran Mamdani prevails.
Trump’s remarks came late Monday on Truth Social, where he urged voters to back Cuomo despite past grievances. “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job,” Trump wrote. “He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!”
The endorsement injects fresh volatility into an already tight contest. Mamdani, who toppled Cuomo in the Democratic primary, leads in most polls, while Republican Curtis Sliwa trails far behind. Trump dismissed Sliwa’s chances outright, warning that “A vote for Curtis Sliwa … is a vote for Mamdani.”
Appearing on CBS’s 60 Minutes Sunday, Trump made his position clear. “It’s gonna be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York,” he said. “Because if you have a communist running New York, all you’re doing is wasting the money you’re sending there.”
.@POTUS on the potential for Zohran Mamdani to become mayor: "It's going to be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York because if you have a communist running New York, all you're doing is wasting the money you're sending there." pic.twitter.com/1cF7AFmTYg
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 3, 2025
The clash deepens the White House’s standoff with left-leaning cities. The Trump administration has a record of linking funding to political alignment, from withholding immigration grants to dispatching National Guard units under its crime crackdown initiative. Last year, New York City received roughly $7.4 billion in federal support.
Mamdani accused Trump of meddling to advance his own interests. “The MAGA movement’s embrace of Andrew Cuomo is reflective of Donald Trump’s understanding that this would be the best mayor for him,” he said. “Not the best mayor for New York City, not the best mayor for New Yorkers, but the best mayor for Donald Trump and his administration.”
The uneasy alignment follows Cuomo’s shift in tone toward Trump. On HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher in 2024, he lambasted New York prosecutors for what he called a politically driven case against Trump. “There’s nobody in New York who likes Trump,” Cuomo said then, “yet a majority still sees the process as tainted.”
For Mamdani, the renewed spotlight comes as crime dominates voter concerns. Opponents have resurfaced a 2013 essay he wrote as a student, describing how he refrained from intervening in sexual assaults during Cairo protests, reasoning that “the last thing Egyptians needed was a well-meaning foreigner’s assistance.”
Conservative outlets have seized on the passage to argue Mamdani favors inaction on violence, citing his support for civilian police oversight and opposition to cash bail. He has not addressed the essay directly but cast Cuomo as a “Trump echo,” saying, “The answer to a Donald Trump presidency is not to create its mirror image here in City Hall.”
Trump, who grew up in Queens, left little doubt about his disdain for Mamdani’s leadership prospects. “I got to see de Blasio, how bad a mayor he was, and this man will do a worse job than de Blasio by far,” Trump said on 60 Minutes. “I’m not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other, but if it’s gonna be between a bad Democrat and a communist, I’m gonna pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you.”
Cuomo has responded by doubling down on his record. “I fought Donald Trump,” he said in a recent debate. “When I’m fighting for New York, I am not going to stop.”
If Mamdani triumphs, he would become New York’s first Muslim mayor and its youngest in over a century. A recent poll revealed that nearly a million people are planning to leave the city to flee his radical policies if he wins.
