“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,” Trump wrote.
New York mayoral candidates rally voters ahead of Election Day
Zoran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa are making a last-ditch effort to connect with voters ahead of Election Day in New York City.
President Donald Trump has launched a belated bid to shake up New York’s mayoral race, urging voters to support Andrew Cuomo to thwart Zoran Mamdani, a frequent target of the president’s ire.
Mr. Cuomo, a longtime Democrat and former governor of New York, is currently running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist who was leading in the polls.
“I would rather see a proven Democrat win than Mr. Mamdani,” Trump wrote on social media, adding, “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really don’t have a choice. You have to vote for him and expect him to do a great job. He can do it, Mr. Mamdani can’t!”
Trump’s comments were his most enthusiastic about Mr. Cuomo so far, and he reluctantly suggested that Mr. Cuomo was a better choice than Mr. Mamdani in an interview that aired on “60 Minutes” on November 2.
“I’m not a fan of Mr. Cuomo one way or the other,” Trump said, adding that he would rather have a “bad Democrat” than Mr. Mamdani, the state lawmaker who has vowed to stand up to the president.
The Republican president also said in comments on Nov. 3 that a vote for Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa in the race was a “vote for Mamdani,” and went on to threaten to withhold federal funds from the city if Mamdani wins.
“It is highly unlikely that I will provide any federal funding other than the bare minimum necessary,” Trump wrote.
Mamdani has been in the national spotlight as Trump works to rally supporters of Cuomo in the final hours of what has emerged as one of the key 2025 races, with repeated attacks from Trump, who has painted Mamdani as too liberal. Opinion polls show competition is heating up.
“I haven’t had any conversations with him and I’m not going to accept any support from President Trump,” Cuomo told NBC News’ “Meet the Press NOW” in October while campaigning in a heavily Democratic city where the president is deeply unpopular.
Mamdani slammed the former governor after President Trump announced his support for the candidate on “60 Minutes.”
“Congratulations @AndrewCuomo,” Mamdani wrote on social media. “I know how hard you worked for this.”
Contributor: Eduardo Cuevas
