Trump supports Andrew Cuomo for New York mayor and threatens to cut aid if Mamdani is elected

US President Donald Trump surprised by supporting Andrew Cuomo in the race for mayor of New York, while threatening to drastically cut federal funding to the city if left-wing candidate Zohran Mamdani won. “Whether you like Andrew Cuomo or not, you have no choice. You have to vote for him,” Trump said on his Truth Social network, adding that Mamdani “wasn’t capable” of running the city.

In a television interview, the president even called Mamdani a “communist,” saying it would be difficult for him “to send a lot of money to a city run by a communist.” Mamdani, who calls himself a “democratic socialist,” retorted: “It’s a threat, not a law. » Former governor Andrew Cuomo, now an independent candidate, greeted this position with distance: “He doesn’t support me, he opposes Mamdani. » According to polls, Zohran Mamdani, favorite of the Democratic camp, is ahead of Cuomo, while Republican Curtis Sliwa remains far behind. If Mamdani wins the election, he would become New York’s first Muslim mayor and the youngest in over a century.

This position by Donald Trump highlights the political logic that still dominates part of the United States: that of a visceral fear of social change. Behind the attacks against Zohran Mamdani, it is the rise of a generation that is more diverse, more progressive and more connected to popular realities that worries conservative elites. Zohran Mamdani, a young elected official of Ugandan origin and Muslim, embodies a changing America, confident in its plurality. That Trump prefers Cuomo, a former political adversary, says a lot about the refusal to see the emergence of an independent voice capable of breaking with the old divisions between Democrats and Republicans.