Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani quickly seized Thursday on a report that Andrew Cuomo and President Trump had a call in recent weeks — blasting such alleged coordination as “disqualifying” for a prospective Big Apple mayor.
Mamdani contended that New Yorkers won’t elect a mayoral candidate who’s cozy with the president after the New York Times report that Trump, a Queens native, was eyeing getting involved in the race.
The Democratic candidate, during an WNYC interview, claimed Cuomo was “coordinating with” Trump, calling it “disqualifying” given the president’s supposed attacks on the city.
He carried on the critique during a hastily organized rally outside 26 Federal Plaza, where ICE agents have controversially been rounding up immigrants appearing for routine court appearances.
“The job of mayor is not to audition to be the jester for a want-to-be king,” Mamdani railed, as he was flanked by union leaders.
“New Yorkers do not want a mayor who is working in tandem with the president to subvert the will of the people of New York City.”
Mamdani also argued he was the only candidate worthy of being elected in deep blue New York City, given incumbent Mayor Eric Adams allegedly being compromised by the president’s Justice Department scuttling his federal criminal case, and Curtis Sliwa being the GOP nominee.
“The fact is, the president has three candidates in this race,” he said.
“One that he’s directly been in touch with, another that he bailed out of legal trouble and now functionally controls and the final one literally being a member of the same Republican Party.”
Insiders said White House officials have been actively calling New York lawmakers and politicos this week to figure out if Trump should weigh in on the race as polls show Mamdani is the clear frontrunner.
The president himself is unsure he should, one source told The Post.
Trump thinks Adams is a politically tainted likely “loser” who cannot win re-election, the source said.
He also dislikes Cuomo, despite a relationship going back decades — and ditto for Sliwa, who marches to the beat of a political drum unaligned with MAGA. Trump and Sliwa have a beef going back years that can’t be reconciled, sources said.
Cuomo’s spokesman Rich Azzopardi, in response to the Times report, said the former governor and Trump “have not spoken in some time.”
“As far as I know, they have not discussed the race,” he claimed.
Azzopardi argued that Trump would actually prefer Mamdani, whom he has labeled a “commie,” because his far-left positions would be a boon for Republicans nationwide in the midterm elections.
He also attacked Adams — who has cozied up to Trump politically, with mixed success — as a “wholly owned subsidiary of the President.”
Sliwa is also in the race, bearing the standard of Trump’s GOP, Azzopardi noted.
“There is only one candidate in this race who can effectively defend New York values and take on Donald Trump – the one official who already has: Andrew Cuomo,” he said. “We’ll leave the palace intrigue to the gossip mill.”
Trump, despite making gains in New York City during the 2024 election, remains deeply unpopular in his home city.
A recent poll found that Trump’s unfavorability stands at 62% in the city, while Mamdani is the only mayoral candidate whose favorability wasn’t deep underwater.
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