New York City mayor Eric Adams.
Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
On Tuesday, Zohran Mamdani’s victory over Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for New York mayor became official, setting up the party’s nominee for a potential four-way race for City Hall this fall. Within hours, President Donald Trump signaled support for the one candidate in the race for whom he made federal charges disappear — and threatened to arrest Mamdani.
During an unrelated press conference in Florida, Trump weighed in on the mayor’s race in his hometown, offering praise for Mayor Eric Adams, who is now running as an independent since dropping out of the Democratic primary. “It’s been a long time since a Republican won the city. But you would think that a Republican would be able to win. Or you have a good independent running, Mayor Adams, who’s a very good person,” Trump said.
Notably, Trump alluded to the federal corruption case that had long loomed over Adams’s chances for reelection until the Justice Department ordered the charges against him dismissed with prejudice, a controversial move that roiled the agency and prompted mass resignations among its ranks of prosecutors.
“I helped him out a little bit. He had a problem,” Trump said. “He made a statement to the effect of ‘This is terrible. New York City can’t have all these immigrants come in.’ And he was indicted the following day. And I said, ‘Well, that was a phony indictment.’ And it was a phony indictment.”
Trump was also asked about Mamdani and his past pledge to refuse to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement if elected mayor. The president issued a stark threat: “Well, then we’ll have to arrest him. Look, we don’t need a communist in this country, but if we have one, I’m going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation.”
In addition to repeating his false refrain that Mamdani is a communist, Trump also promoted unfounded claims that Mamdani, a naturalized citizen who was born in Uganda and raised in New York City from a young age, is breaking immigration laws. “A lot of people are saying he’s here illegally. We’re gonna look at everything,” Trump said, one day after the Justice Department announced it was expanding his immigration crackdowns to include naturalized citizens who have committed crimes.
Mamdani dismissed Trump’s comments as a failed attempt to intimidate him and others:
Governor Kathy Hochul, who has yet to officially endorse Mamdani, defended him following the president’s comments. “I don’t care if you’re the President of the United States, if you threaten to unlawfully go after one of our neighbors, you’re picking a fight with 20 million New Yorkers — starting with me,” she wrote on social media.
