Mayoral hopeful Andrew Cuomo flatly denied Thursday that he recently had a phone call with Donald Trump, as he backpedaled his past fighting stance against the president.
Cuomo, when pressed about a New York Times report about the supposed conversation, called it “false.”
“I’ve never spoken to him about the mayor’s race,” he said.
Trump, speaking from the White House, also denied speaking to Cuomo about his mayoral run.
The former governor said the last time he called Trump was after the Butler, Pennsylvania assassination attempt last July, when he left a message.
The brouhaha over the disputed phone call between the pair – Queens natives who have known each other for decades – arguably overshadowed Cuomo’s event touting his affordability agenda.
Cuomo even trotted out a PowerPoint, as he did over the coronavirus pandemic, to tout his proposals — including free subway and bus fares for low-income New Yorkers — seemingly responding to the agenda of frontrunner candidate Zohran Mamdani.
Afterward, Cuomo also tried to play down another Times report that he told business bigwigs in a Wednesday meeting he wasn’t “personally” looking for a fight with Trump, even likening their long relationship to a “dysfunctional marriage.”
In a phone call with The Post, the three-term governor claimed that he hasn’t softened his stance, despite his Democratic primary pitch as the only candidate who could stand up to Trump.
“There is no tonal shift between the primary and the general. I’m not trying to get Republican votes; those are going to Eric Adams and Curtis Sliwa,” Cuomo said.
“We never got into it during the primary,” he claimed.
But Cuomo’s campaign, during the primary race, even boasted in a digital ad that “Andrew Cuomo is the last person they want as mayor” – and pledged to fight Trump’s administration head-on.
Cuomo — who is reportedly being investigated by Trump’s US Attorney in Washington DC, Jeanine Pirro — argued during his news conference Thursday that he could both oppose and work with the White House.
“My knowledge gives me an ability to be in a formidable position as an opponent for the president,” he said.
“But also at the same time, I would try to work with the president where we could. He’s the president. We need the federal government – there’s a lot of good things he can do for the city.”
