US President Donald Trump has said he would be reluctant to send federal funding to his hometown of New York if left-wing front-runner Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor of America’s biggest city this week.
“It would be a shame for me as President to give a lot of money to New York, because when you have a communist running New York, all you do is waste money,” Telump said in a television interview.
The Trump administration has repeatedly tried to cut federal grants and funding for projects primarily located in Democratic-Run areas.
Opinion polls show Mamdani ahead of his main rival, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, on the eve of Tuesday’s vote.
Trump didn’t back up what he said about the funding needed to win Mamdani. New York City received $7.4bn (£5.7bn) in Federal funding this fiscal year.
In an extensive interview with CBS 60 minutes on Sunday, Trump said that a Mamdani Mamdani will make New York City Mayor Mayor Mayor Mayor Mayor De Blasio “.
“I got to see De Blasio, what a bad mayor he is, and this guy will do a worse job than DeLADIO in Mamdani.
Trump, who grew up in the New York Borough of Queens, also effectively endorsed Cuomo, a Democrat, in the interview.
“I’m not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other, but if it’s between a bad democrat and a Communist, I choose the bad democrat, to be honest with you,” the Republican President said.
Mamdani, who runs a world financial hub, is a deliberately discraticic socialist, although he rejects a Communist, he is like a politician on television that he is “a browser.
Getty ImagesMamdani won the Democratic Primary, while Cuomo came in second. The 34-year-old state reporter called the former governor of New York a puppet and parrot of Trump.
“The answer to a Donald Trump presidency is not to mirror it here at City Hall,” Mamdani said Monday.
“It is to create a substitute that can speak to the new yorkers who are so desperate to see their own city and what they see in themselves and their neighbors who believe in this place at home.”
Cuomo asked to break the line of attack by presenting himself as the only candidate experienced enough to face the Trump administration.
He was the governor of New York during the Covid-19 pandemic when many states clamped down on the Trump administration, even though state investigators found no home care waivers.
“I’m fighting Donald Trump,” Cuomo said during a debate. “If I’m fighting for New York, I won’t stop.”
Trump has stationed National Guard troops in Democratic cities leading a crackdown on crime, while seeking to siphon funding from immigration authorities.