Zohran Mamdani, who delivered an upset earlier this week in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, pushed back on President Trump’s claims that the Empire State lawmaker is a “communist lunatic.”
“You know, this is not the first time that President Trump is going to comment on myself, and I encourage him — just like I encourage every New Yorker — to learn about my actual policies to make the city affordable,” Mamdani told ABC News’s Rachel Scott in an interview Wednesday.
Trump’s criticism came after Mamdani, 33, took a commanding lead over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in Tuesday’s primary race. No candidate won a majority in the first-choice ballots on Tuesday.
Cuomo — the establishment candidate who had been favored to win in many polls — conceded to the self-proclaimed democratic socialist later after falling short in the city’s ranked-choice voting system.
With Mamdani on track to secure the Democratic nomination, Trump joined other Republicans in voicing his opposition.
“It’s finally happened, the Democrats have crossed the line. Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary, and is on his way to becoming Mayor,” Trump, a longtime New Yorker, posted on Truth Social.
“We’ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous,” Trump added.
Mamdani’s campaign largely focused on addressing the city’s affordability crisis, and he made lofty promises, including to freeze rent, to make busses faster and free and to open city-run supermarkets.
During the ABC interview, he blasted the president for campaigning heavily on economic issues in 2024 but not prioritizing it since returning to the Oval Office earlier this year.
“He ran a presidential campaign, in part, speaking about the necessity of making groceries cheaper and to make cost of living more navigable for so many,” Mamdani told Scott. “He’s shown himself uninterested and unable to deliver on that.”
“If that is ever something he changes his mind on, then that’s somewhere that I would be willing to work with him,” the mayoral hopeful added.
Mamdani pledged to continue to fight the Trump administration amid the president’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
“But if he continues to focus on persecuting political enemies and on trying to detain and disappear New Yorkers, be it on the basis of their documentation or their sexual orientation or their politics, that is someone that I will fight time and again,” the state lawmaker added.
Cuomo could still choose to follow New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ lead and run as an independent in November’s general election. Republican candidate Curtis Silwa, who founded the Guardian Angels, is also in the running.
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