Reuters. U.S. President Donald Trump turned his attention to New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday (November 5), calling him a "Communist" during a business forum in Miami, Florida.
Trump was headlining the America Business Forum, giving a wide-ranging speech, when he issued a warning about Mamdani. "You watch what happens in New York. Terrible. But you're going to see that same thing. I hope it doesn't happen, but you're going to see it," he said.
His criticism continued as the speech went on: "Remember I said 'We will never have a socialist elected to any post in our country.' I used to say that, and I was right. We skipped Socialist and put in a Communist instead. That didn't work out too well. But, as I've warned for many years, our opponents are hell-bent on turning America into a Communist Cuba or Socialist Venezuela. You see what happened to those places", Trump said.
Responding to Mamdani’s victory night remarks pledging to stand up to Trump, the US president described the mayor-elect’s comments as a “dangerous statement”.
“He has to be a little bit respectful of Washington, because if he’s not, he doesn’t have a chance of succeeding,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, Al Jazeera reports.
“And I want to make him succeed. I want to make the city succeed,” Trump added, before quickly clarifying that he wanted New York City, not Mamdani, to succeed.
Mamdani, a 34-year-old, fresh-faced state lawmaker, beat Andrew Cuomo, the state's former Democratic governor, who ran as an independent. The election pitted Mamdani's progressive stances against Cuomo, 67, and his more establishment views, as he tried to make the case for his qualifications over Mamdani's newfound influence.
Both candidates carried political baggage. Mamdani has faced scrutiny for identifying as a democratic socialist and for past remarks on Israel and the New York Police Department, while Cuomo’s 2021 resignation over sexual harassment allegations clouded his potential return.
