In a last-ditch effort to blunt the momentum of Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, President Trump is urging New Yorkers to vote for Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday. The president says that he wants to withhold federal dollars from America’s largest city should Mr. Mamdani win. 

The three-way race for mayor has never been particularly close, with Mr. Mamdani consistently taking around 50 percent of the vote based on polling, while Mr. Cuomo and the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa, dividing the rest of the electorate. Even though he is a fellow member of the GOP, Mr. Trump says that Mr. Sliwa does not have what it takes to win, meaning that he wants voters to back Mr. Cuomo. 

“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, because of the fact that, as a Communist, this once great City has ZERO chance of success, or even survival!” Mr. Trump wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post on Monday night. 

“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 added. 

Mr. Mamdani — a Millennial democratic socialist who has been a state lawmaker for nearly five years — defeated Mr. Cuomo in an upset victory in the Democratic primary over the summer. Mayor Eric Adams, like Mr. Cuomo, mounted an independent campaign before abandoning that effort and lending his support to the former governor. 

Mr. Trump largely stayed out of the race until Monday, only one day before the election, though he had offered some praise to both Messrs. Adams and Cuomo during the course of the general election. Now that it appears Mr. Mamdani will cruise to victory on Tuesday night, Mr. Trump is warning his former neighbors to think of the punishment that may come should the assemblyman win. 

“I would much rather see a Democrat, who has had a Record of Success, WIN, than a Communist with no experience and a Record of COMPLETE AND TOTAL FAILURE. He was nothing as an Assemblyman, ranked at the bottom of the class and, as Mayor of potentially, again, the Greatest City in the World, HE HAS NO CHANCE to bring it back to its former Glory!” Mr. Trump said. 

The president bashed Mr. Sliwa in the post, as well. He said the Republican nominee — who “looks much better without the beret,” according to Mr. Trump — simply cannot win. He says that a vote for Mr. Sliwa is just “a vote for Mamdani.”

“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,” Mr. Trump wrote. “He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!”