{"id":201238,"date":"2025-09-05T03:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T03:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/201238\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T03:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T03:20:09","slug":"trump-says-zohran-mamdani-likely-to-be-new-yorks-next-mayor-unless-2-of-his-opponents-quit-the-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/201238\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says Zohran Mamdani likely to be New York’s next mayor unless 2 of his opponents quit the race"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON D.C. (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump said Thursday that he thinks Democrat Zohran Mamdani<\/a> is likely to become New York City\u2019s next mayor unless two of the three major candidates running against him drop out of the race. But the Republican didn\u2019t say which two candidates he\u2019d like to see quit.<\/p>\n

Trump said \u201cNo\u201d when he was asked by a reporter Thursday night if he\u2019d urged or encouraged any of the candidates in the race to drop out, but went on to say he would like to see that happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think you can win unless you have one-on-one, and somehow he\u2019s gotten a little bit of a lead,\u201d Trump said of Mamdani. \u201cI have no idea how that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president, who spoke as he hosted a dinner at the White House with tech executives, went on and said, \u201cI would like to see two people drop out and have it be one-on-one, and I think that\u2019s a race that could be won.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, has been the presumptive favorite in the election since soundly beating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary in June. But Cuomo is still on the ballot as an independent, as is incumbent Mayor Eric Adams. Joining those three Democrats in the field is Republican Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels crime patrol group.<\/p>\n

Recently, intermediaries for Trump reached out to people close to Adams to talk about whether he would consider abandoning his reelection campaign to take a federal job, according to people familiar with those conversations who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the talks.<\/p>\n

On a recent trip to Miami, Adams met with Steve Witkoff, a former real estate developer in New York who is now one of Trump\u2019s main diplomatic envoys in Washington, according to one of the people briefed on the discussions.<\/p>\n

Adams acknowledged meeting with \u201cseveral political figures\u201d on his Florida trip, which he said was to \u201cdeal with some personal issues.\u201d But he has repeatedly insisted he won\u2019t quit.<\/p>\n

Adams reiterated his intention of staying in the race Thursday, adding that he wasn\u2019t bothered by growing calls for him to end his campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo pressure, no diamonds,\u201d Adams told reporters at an event touting an endorsement from some Muslim leaders. \u201cJust because people yell at you and call your names, and just because a number of people ask you to step down or don\u2019t do what you believe, you\u2019re supposed to succumb to that? That\u2019s not what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams\u2019 campaign was deeply wounded when he was indicted on corruption charges last year, then developed a warm relationship with Trump that bothered many Democrats in one of the country\u2019s most liberal cities. There was further backlash from Democrats after the Justice Department said it was dropping the case so that Adams could assist with Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n

At a news conference Thursday, Cuomo called on Adams to drop out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Mamdani is the existential threat, if you believe that, then at a point you should defer to the strongest candidates,\u201d Cuomo said.<\/p>\n

Sliwa, meanwhile, has cast himself as the best candidate to take on Mamdani.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe assumption here is that Eric Adams\u2019 voters, if he does drop out, are all going to jump to Cuomo. That ain\u2019t happening,\u201d Sliwa said in an interview. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of anger toward Cuomo. They\u2019ve been going back and forth like two scorpions in a brandy glass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sliwa added that he also isn\u2019t quitting, and said no one from the Trump administration had reached out yet to urge him to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can assure you for 9,852th time in this campaign I\u2019ve had to answer this: I\u2019m not dropping out. I\u2019m in it until November 4,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t care if people drop out. I\u2019d encourage them to stay in. Let the people decide. That\u2019s what democracy is about, a vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Jake Offenhartz contributed to this report from New York. Izaguirre reported from New York.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON D.C. (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump said Thursday that he thinks Democrat Zohran Mamdani is likely to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":201239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-201238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115149539034936703","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}