A political storm erupted late Tuesday after the White House’s official X account declared, “Trump is your President,” moments after Democrat Zohran Mamdani was elected the next Mayor of New York City, a result widely viewed as a major political blow for President Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
Mamdani’s victory was historic on multiple fronts. The Democrat defeated Republican Curtis Sliwa and independent candidate Andrew Cuomo, who had re-entered the race after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary, to become New York’s first Muslim mayor.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 5, 2025
But celebrations were soon overshadowed by a fiery online exchange between the White House and Trump himself. The post appeared to echo Trump’s earlier warning that federal funding to New York could be slashed if what he described as a “communist” candidate took power.
“If Communist Candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the Election for Mayor of New York City, it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required, to my beloved first home,”
Trump had written on Truth Social.
Doubling down, the President added, “It can only get worse with a Communist at the helm, and I don’t want to send, as President, good money after bad.” He labelled Mamdani’s leadership a “Complete and Total Economic and Social Disaster.”
As voting got underway, Trump’s rhetoric grew even sharper. He accused Mamdani of being a “self-professed Jew hater” and said that “any Jewish person who votes for him is stupid.” The remarks, which came just hours before polls opened, further inflamed tensions in a race already fraught with debates over religion, identity, and foreign policy.
Trump also alleged that Mamdani “hates Israel,” claiming that Jewish voters who backed him were “betraying their own community.”
For Mamdani, the election marks a historic moment. He not only becomes New York’s first Muslim and first South Asian mayor, but also the youngest mayor in over a century. Born in Uganda to parents of Indian origin, Mamdani is also the first naturalised immigrant to hold the office since Abraham Beame in the 1970s.
The race’s final stretch was marked by surprising political manoeuvres. On the eve of the election, Andrew Cuomo, running as an independent, received an unexpected endorsement — not from his fellow Democrat, but from Trump himself. The President’s support for Cuomo over Sliwa reflected his determination to block Mamdani’s path to City Hall at any cost.
