President Donald Trump suggested during a Tuesday cabinet meeting that the federal government may have to take over the Big Apple if Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani wins the mayoral election.
“If a communist gets elected to run New York, it can never be the same, but we have tremendous power at the White House to run places where we have to,” Trump told reporters. “New York City will run properly. I’m going to bring New York back. I love New York.”
Mamdani, a self described Democratic socialist, won the Democratic primary just a few weeks ago. His victory was deemed a major upset as he defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a moderate.
Trump promised to “straighten out New York” but didn’t give specifics on the authority he would invoke to take control over New York. During his first administration, Trump made similar threats of taking over the city.
“We’re going to do something for New York,” Trump said. “I can’t tell you what yet, but we’re going to make New York great again. Also, we’re going to make it great again with the country.”
Trump called Mamdani “not very capable” and a “disaster,” saying his nomination has stirred concern for New York business owners.
“He’s a disaster He’s got the Democrat nomination because that shows you where the Democrats have gone,” Trump said. “He actually wants to take over the grocery stores of John Catsimatidis.[Catsimatidis] actually called me the other day, he’s concerned, his stores are going to be taken from him.”
As one of his campaign promises, Mamdani has suggested establishing government- run grocery stores.
While Cuomo lost his the Democrat primary election to Mamdani by 12%, he has secured his name on the ballot under the Fight and Deliver Party. He called on current New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent, to drop his re-election bid.
“[Andrew] Cuomo does have capability,” Trump said. “He’s running, but he got knocked out [of the Democratic primary]. You have Eric Adams, the current mayor, you have Cuomo, and you have Curtis Silwa? And Curtis runs every, every four years. He seems to be a fixture on the running scale.”
Trump said that he was “not getting involved” when asked if Sliwa, the Republican nominee, should drop out of the race.
During the meeting, Trump also echoed his previous calls to take control of the nation’s capital as well.
“We could run D.C.,” Trump said. “We’re looking at D.C. We don’t want crime in D.C. We want the city to run well.”