Zohran Mamdani is continuing to sell his progressive vision for New York City amid increasing pressure from President Donald Trump.
“I have already had to start to get used to the fact that the president will talk about how I look, how I sound, where I’m from, who I am, ultimately because he wants to distract from what I’m fighting for,” Mamdani told NBC’s Kristen Welker on Sunday on “Meet the Press.” “And I’m fighting for the very working people that he ran a campaign to empower, that he has since then betrayed.”
In the days since Mamdani’s upset victory in a New York City mayoral primary over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and others, prominent Republicans have pushed to make him the face of the Democratic Party, denouncing his policies as “radical” and “socialist.”
In an interview that aired on “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo,” Trump called Mamdani a Communist and threatened to withhold federal funding from the city in case of a conflict.
“I can’t imagine it, but let’s say this, if he does get in, I’m gonna be president and he’s going to have to do the right thing or they’re not getting any money,” Trump said. “He’s gotta do the right thing.”
Mamdani also vowed to uphold New York City’s sanctuary status if elected in November, even as the White House continues to push its aggressive immigration agenda in some of the country’s largest cities.
The Trump administration in February sued the state of New York over its sanctuary policies, alleging they interfered with federal deportation efforts. Meanwhile, Mayor Eric Adams has met several times with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan. Not long after the Department of Justice moved to dismiss a criminal bribery case against him in February, Adams moved to allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents back into the city’s Rikers Island jail complex.
“It’s a policy that had previously been defended by Democrats and Republicans alike, until the fearmongering of this current mayor,” Mamdani told Welker. “And it’s a policy that we’ve seen ensures that New Yorkers can get out of the shadows and into the full life of the city that they belong to, and it’s one that I will be proud to stand up for.”