{"id":355560,"date":"2025-11-04T18:12:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T18:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/355560\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T18:12:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T18:12:16","slug":"if-mamdani-wins-nyc-election-brace-for-a-trump-onslaught","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/355560\/","title":{"rendered":"If Mamdani wins NYC election, brace for a Trump onslaught"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re on the eve of one of the most consequential races in New York City’s history, and Republicans seem poised to attack Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani all the way to Election Day.<\/p>\n

\"play\"<\/p>\n

Candidates for New York mayor face off in final debate<\/p>\n

Andrew Cuomo, Zohran Mamdani, and Curtis Sliwa clashed over Trump, housing, crime, and sexual harassment claims.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re on the eve of one of the most consequential races in New York City\u2019s history<\/a>, and Republicans seem poised to attack Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani all the way to Election Day.<\/p>\n

The GOP is now convinced that Mamdani, who has been struggling to obtain endorsements from longtime Democrats, is apparently the one calling the shots within the party. Congressional Republicans even seem ready to blame him for the monthlong government shutdown<\/a>\u00a0they have no desire to end.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Democratic Party has changed, Mamdani is now running the party<\/a>,\u201d House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, said during an Oct. 29 news conference about the government shutdown. \u201cThat party has changed. The American people still have the same needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Republicans have fearmongered about Mamdani<\/a>. They are clearly threatened by the 34-year-old democratic socialist<\/a> and are fearful of what New York City will become if he\u2019s elected mayor. My fear, however, is that these attacks are just beginning and will only get worse if Mamdani does prevail on Nov. 4.<\/p>\n

Opinion: <\/strong>Republicans’ refusal to fund SNAP will hurt their own voters most. They don’t care.<\/a><\/p>\n

Republicans love to attack Mamdani \u2013 including Trump<\/p>\n

Since Mamdani became the Democratic nominee, Republicans have been lobbing attacks at the state assemblyman who seems poised to become the next mayor of New York City. Members of the GOP have demanded that President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s administration consider deporting Mamdani<\/a>, while others have made horrific comments about his Muslim identity.<\/p>\n

Trump has also made multiple comments about Mamdani since the primary election, including falsely labeling the nominee a \u201ccommunist<\/a>\u201d and claiming that he is \u201chere illegally<\/a>.\u201d Shortly after the primary election in June, the president threatened to arrest Mamdani<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Recently, Trump vowed to send in the National Guard and withhold federal funds from New York City if Mamdani were elected, claiming<\/a>, \u201cWe have a communist … doesn’t know a thing, probably never worked a day in his life, and he sort of caught on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opinion: <\/strong>Cuomo courts clear racism against Mamdani in desperate bid to win NYC mayor<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s wild to me that Republican leaders suddenly care so much about the fate of New York City, given how much they love to complain about the Democratic stronghold. What worries me is that Republicans are so hellbent on this narrative of the city\u2019s destruction that Mamdani\u2019s potential election victory will lead Trump to attack the city for years to come.<\/p>\n

Democrats are fearmongering, too \u2013 and refusing to endorse Mamdani<\/p>\n

Of course, I\u2019m not the only one worried about this. Independent candidate Andrew Cuomo has said as much on the campaign trail, arguing that this is the reason that he, a scandal-ridden former governor<\/a> of New York, should be the one to take over city hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Mamdani wins, you are going to see Trump come in here and take over New York City,\u201d Cuomo told podcast host Stephen A. Smith<\/a> on Oct. 29. \u201cYou mark my words.\u201d<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t buy that. Cuomo is trying to stoke fears among New Yorkers just as much as the Republicans are \u2013 and Democrats should be wary of listening to him.<\/p>\n

NYC mayor race: <\/strong>Mamdani doesn’t have the NYC mayor election in the bag. We can’t give up now. | Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n

Since Trump\u2019s reelection, several Democratic elected officials have flirted with right-wing talking points instead of standing strong in their beliefs.<\/p>\n

Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-New York, said after the election that Democrats lost votes for \u201cpandering to the far left<\/a>,\u201d throwing trans people under the bus in the process. Suozzi, who represents part of Long Island, also recently chose to buck the party and endorsed Cuomo,<\/a> declaring himself \u201ca democratic capitalist, not a democratic socialist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opinion alerts:<\/b> Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don’t have the app? Download it for free from your app store<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other Democrats are showing their spinelessness by refraining from commenting on the mayoral race altogether. Both New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have failed to endorse Mamdani, signaling their discomfort with someone as far left as Mamdani becoming a leader in the party.<\/p>\n

If Mamdani does win, he\u2019s going to need support from his fellow Democrats when Trump inevitably tries to go after New York City. It\u2019s time for longtime members of the party to stand with him, instead of letting him be relentlessly attacked by the president of the United States and his acolytes. It\u2019s time for Democrats to take a stand in support of Mamdani, especially since he is likely to be the person fielding the most attacks from Trump in the coming years.<\/p>\n

Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Peque\u00f1o on X, formerly Twitter:\u00a0@sara__pequeno<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We’re on the eve of one of the most consequential races in New York City’s history, and Republicans…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":355561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,10887,5297,15082,9642,10898,3953,11330,8541,11332,30303,3189,5706,2385,10889,9124,446,69,8988,10208,90,454,17819,11327,5708,451,635,405,403,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,1539,1269,11336,8614,5622,450,457,10669,11326,11333,80,3389,7047,1054,3190,277,1439,16566,646,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,11331,11337,636,5709,5301],"class_list":{"0":"post-355560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-andrew","10":"tag-andrew-cuomo","11":"tag-aoc","12":"tag-campaigns","13":"tag-campaigns-u0026-elections","14":"tag-center","15":"tag-collection","16":"tag-columnists","17":"tag-columnists-opinions","18":"tag-communism","19":"tag-content","20":"tag-cuomo","21":"tag-day","22":"tag-democratic","23":"tag-democratic-party","24":"tag-donald","25":"tag-donald-trump","26":"tag-election","27":"tag-election-day","28":"tag-elections","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-house","31":"tag-left","32":"tag-mamdani","33":"tag-negative","34":"tag-new","35":"tag-new-york","36":"tag-new-york-city","37":"tag-news","38":"tag-newyork","39":"tag-newyorkcity","40":"tag-ny","41":"tag-nyc","42":"tag-of","43":"tag-opinion","44":"tag-opinion-collection","45":"tag-opinion-content","46":"tag-opinions","47":"tag-overall","48":"tag-overall-negative","49":"tag-party","50":"tag-politically","51":"tag-politically-center-left","52":"tag-politics","53":"tag-representatives","54":"tag-republican","55":"tag-republican-party","56":"tag-sharing","57":"tag-trump","58":"tag-u-s","59":"tag-u-s-house-of-representatives","60":"tag-u0026","61":"tag-united-states","62":"tag-united-states-of-america","63":"tag-unitedstates","64":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","65":"tag-us","66":"tag-usa","67":"tag-usat","68":"tag-usat-content-sharing-opinion","69":"tag-york","70":"tag-zohran","71":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355560","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=355560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}