Trump urges New Yorkers to vote for Cuomo for mayor
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he arrives at Palm Beach International Airport on October 31 in West Palm Beach
By Alejandra Jaramillo, CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump urged New Yorkers in his strongest terms yet to vote for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the city’s mayoral race on the eve of the election.
“Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job,” the president wrote on Truth Social on Monday, adding that Cuomo “is capable of it” and that Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani “is not!”
His backing of Cuomo, whom he described as having a “Record of Success,” could hurt the former governor with Democrats as much as it helps him with Republicans in deep-blue New York City. Mamdani, who shocked Cuomo in June’s Democratic primary, has repeatedly tied the former governor to Trump and argued that he would stand up to powerful interests in both New York and Washington.
Trump, a Queens native, has long complained about Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, and falsely labeled him a communist. He again vowed to pull federal funds from the city if Mamdani wins Tuesday “other than the very minimum as required.”
The president previously offered tepid support for Cuomo, casting the election as a choice between the better of two bad options, while discounting the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa.
“I’m not a fan of Cuomo one way or another, but if it’s going to be between a bad Democrat and a communist, I’m going to pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you,” Trump told CBS’ “60 Minutes” in an interview that aired Sunday.
Mamdani quickly seized on Trump’s comments in that interview, posting his congratulations to Cuomo on X on Sunday and adding, “I know how hard you worked for this.”
The Republican president discouraged voters from backing Sliwa, though he’s stopped short of explicitly demanding the Republican nominee leave the race as other Cuomo backers have.
“A vote for Curtis Sliwa (who looks much better without the beret!) is a vote for Mamdani,” he wrote.
The president — who’s holding telerallies for Virginia and New Jersey audiences Monday night — had his focus trained on the Empire State on social media, lashing out at Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who campaigned with Mamdani over the weekend.
He accused her of “killing the entire region with Energy Prices that are OUT OF CONTROL” and said he’d ask Transportation Secretary Dean Duffy “to take a good, long look at terminating New York City Congestion Pricing.”
The-CNN-Wire
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