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President Donald Trump has branded Zohran Mamdani “a 100% Communist Lunatic” the day after the New York mayoral hopeful won a surprise victory in the city’s Democratic primary.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump attacked Mamdani as a “radical leftie” who was “on his way to becoming Mayor”.
“It’s finally happened, the Democrats have crossed the line,” the president wrote. “Yes, this is a big moment in the History of our Country!”
Trump’s post came hours after a primary that shocked the national Democratic establishment, as a 33-year-old assemblyman from Queens emerged from obscurity to assume pole position in the race to become New York’s next mayor.
He prevailed over Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York state and frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. New York City leans towards Democrats, so the upset gives Mamdani a big advantage in the election this year to replace incumbent mayor Eric Adams.
Cuomo, who was forced to resign as state governor in 2021 amid allegations of sexual harassment, was seen by younger voters as the status quo candidate at a time when many wanted a decisive break with the past.
Mamdani captured the imagination of many New Yorkers by pledging a number of measures to tackle the “affordability crisis” in a city that has seen living costs soar since the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said he would freeze rents and raise taxes on the wealthy to finance free buses, free universal child care and city-owned grocery stores with reduced food prices.
“Eight months after launching this campaign with the vision of a city that every New Yorker can afford, we have won,” Mamdani said in his victory speech early on Wednesday morning.
Mamdani has proposed increasing income tax on people earning more than $1mn annually by 2 percentage points, and raising New York’s corporate tax rate from 7.25 per cent to 11.5 per cent. However, the New York State government is unlikely to approve the proposals.
The ideas have also caused consternation on Wall Street, where financiers are now trying to find an “anyone-but-Mamdani” candidate capable of halting the self-declared democratic socialist in his tracks.
Some Democrats said they weren’t surprised by Trump’s outburst, and warned that Mamdani was in danger of becoming a “bogeyman” for the right, one it could use to tarnish the whole party.
“Trump and Fox News will be able to point to the Democrats in the biggest US city and say — we were right all along, the party is full of radical socialists and here’s the proof,” said one New York Democratic strategist familiar with Mamdani’s campaign.
“We’ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He said Mamdani had “AOC+3, Dummies ALL, backing him”, a reference to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive Representative from New York, and three other progressive Democratic congresswomen.
In a follow-up post, Trump suggested that the Democrats should nominate progressive Representative Jasmine Crockett as their candidate in the 2028 presidential election, and “AOC+3” as nominees for vice-president and other high-level cabinet positions.
“Added together with our future Communist Mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, and our country is really SCREWED!” he wrote.
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