As his hometown of New York City votes for its next mayor, President Donald Trump is supporting former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who is running as an independent.
The Republican president announced his support for Mr. Cuomo, who lost the June Democratic primary to Zoran Mamdani, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, just hours before polling stations opened on Tuesday in the closely watched election.
President Trump called Mamdani, a Muslim immigrant who campaigned on a promise to make New York more affordable for residents through rent freezes and universal child care, a “communist.” He also threatened to withhold federal funds from New York City if Mamdani wins.
“I would much rather have a Democrat with a successful record of winning than a communist with no experience and a record of complete and utter failure,” Trump said on his platform Truth Social.
Mamdani currently leads the polls with 46% approval rating, giving him a double-digit lead over Cuomo’s 32%. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa was in third place with 16%. President Trump discouraged voters from choosing Sliwa, saying, “A vote for Curtis Sliwa… is the same as a vote for Mamdani.”
But will Trump’s endorsement help or hinder Cuomo’s already slim chances of winning the election?
Why did Trump support Cuomo?
President Trump’s support for Mr. Cuomo, who resigned as New York governor in 2021 following sexual misconduct allegations, appears to be driven primarily by his opposition to Mr. Mamdani.
Mamdani denied that Trump had described him as a communist.
In June, PolitiFact debunked claims that Mamdani was a communist. “Communism involves a centrally planned economy with no market forces. Prices and quantities are set by central government authorities. There is no democratic political competition, instead a single party rules the country. The president has not asked for any of that,” Anna Grzymala Busse, a professor at Stanford University, told PolitiFact.
But President Trump claims that now that Mandani is at the helm of New York, “this once great city has zero chance of success or even survival!”
“As president, you don’t want to send good money after bad,” he said, referring to threats to withhold federal funding from New York City. “His principles have been tested for over a thousand years and have never been successful.”
President Trump’s full endorsement of Mr. Cuomo followed a more tepid interview on the CBS Television Network’s “60 Minutes” that was filmed Friday at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and aired Sunday.
“I’m not a fan of Cuomo anyway, but if it were a battle between a bad Democrat and a communist, I’ll be honest with you, I’d pick the bad Democrat any day,” Trump said on the show.
Trump added: “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really don’t have a choice. You just have to vote for him and hope he does a great job.” “(Cuomo) can do that. Mamdani can’t!”
How did Mr. Cuomo react to Mr. Trump’s support?
The former governor sought to distance himself from President Trump’s comments.
“He didn’t say that. He didn’t say that. He didn’t say that,” Cuomo told reporters Monday when asked about Trump’s comments on 60 Minutes.
He added: “Mr Mamdani is not a communist. He is a socialist. But we don’t need a socialist mayor either.”
“He (Trump) called me a bad Democrat. First of all, I happen to be a good Democrat, a proud Democrat, and I’m going to continue to be a proud Democrat,” Cuomo told reporters in his Washington Heights neighborhood.
After Mr. Cuomo lost to Mr. Mamdani in the Democratic primary in June, Mr. Trump publicly urged Mr. Cuomo to stay in the race and reportedly discussed his campaign with Mr. Cuomo.
But Mr. Cuomo has since emphasized that he has no allegiance to Mr. Trump and insisted he would do a better job standing up to the president as New York City’s mayor.
How did Mamdani react to President Trump’s support for Cuomo?
Throughout his campaign, Mamdani portrayed Cuomo as Trump’s choice for mayor, calling him the president’s puppet in deeply democratic New York, and was quick to respond to Trump’s latest comments.
“We’ve known since the primary that Andrew Cuomo was funded by the same billionaires who gave Donald Trump a second term. Even up until the last few days, (Cuomo) denied that he was Donald Trump’s favorite candidate,” Mamdani said in a CNN interview late Monday.
“But now it’s documented for the whole world to see,” Mamdani said, adding, “The person Donald Trump wants to be the next mayor of New York is not because he’s good for New Yorkers, but because he’s good for Donald Trump, and New Yorkers are tired of this agenda in Washington.”
Mr. Mamdani’s campaign also highlighted that Mr. Cuomo has the support of Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and once a staunch ally of Mr. Trump.
Mamdani also followed through on Trump’s threat to limit funding to New York if he wins. “Donald Trump is not the one deciding which cities and states get what funding,” the Democratic candidate said. “This is money New Yorkers are owed, and this is money we will fight for.”
Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialist Party of America, has campaigned for universal free child care, free public buses and a rent freeze for New Yorkers.
“He is spending $300 million to renovate the White House ballroom, which is the same amount that could provide SNAP benefits to 100,000 New Yorkers,” Mamdani said.
Will Trump’s support work in Cuomo’s favor?
Mr. Trump himself has lost the New York City vote by wide margins in all three presidential elections since 2016.
However, compared to 2016 and 2020, he dramatically narrowed the gap in 2024, winning more than 30 percent of the vote, making him the first Republican to do so since 1988.
An overview of Mr. Cuomo’s performance in this year’s Democratic primaries shows an overlap between his support and areas with particularly large older, working-class, and Orthodox Jewish populations, including parts of southern Brooklyn, the North Shore of Staten Island, and parts of Queens, where Mr. Trump won votes in the 2024 presidential race.
So in theory, Trump’s support could boost Cuomo’s chances in some of these areas.
Could ties to Trump hurt Cuomo?
But Mr. Trump’s support could be a double-edged sword for Mr. Cuomo.
The city as a whole leans heavily toward Democrats, so it’s no wonder Mamdani’s campaign has consistently envisioned Mr. Cuomo as a surrogate for Mr. Trump.
Mr. Cuomo performed particularly well in the primary against Mr. Mamdani in areas with large black and Hispanic communities.
But while Mr. Trump gained significant support in both communities in 2024, his support among Black Americans and Hispanic Americans has declined since then. President Trump’s plan to arrest and deport immigrants disproportionately hurts Latino communities across the country.
Could Sliwa voters switch allegiance?
Polls suggest it may be difficult for Mr. Mamdani to pass the 50% threshold, but New York state has a first-come, first-served system in which whoever receives the most votes wins.
Mr. Sliwa has rejected repeated calls for months to suspend his campaign and rally his supporters to Mr. Cuomo’s side, and a switch from Mr. Sliwa’s supporters could close the gap with Mr. Mamdani.
Last week’s Marist New York City poll showed that Mamdani was leading with 48% support, Cuomo 32% and Sliwa 16%.If Sliwa were to withdraw from the race, Mamdani would receive 50% of likely voters overall, compared to 44% for Cuomo.
Mr. Cuomo has reminded Republicans in recent weeks that a vote for Mr. Sliwa is a vote for Mr. Mamdani.
