President Donald Trump sought to put his thumb on the scale of the NYC Mayor’s Race Tuesday — threatening to lock up newly minted Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani if he dares to interfere with ICE operations while appearing to throw his support behind incumbent Mayor Eric Adams’ long-shot independent reelection bid.
During a July 1 visit to a Florida migrant detention center dubbed as “Alligator Alcatraz,” Trump said “we’ll have to arrest” Mamdani if he interferes with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents (ICE) as mayor — something the Democratic mayoral nominee has said he would do.
“Look, we don’t need a communist in this country,” Trump said, referring to Mamdani, who identifies as a democratic socialist and not a communist (democratic socialists and communists are not one and the same). “But if we have one, I’m going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation.”
He also lied in suggesting that Mamdani, who became a naturalized citizen in 2018, is in the country illegally.
Trump’s comments came as Mamdani clinched the Democratic nomination in ranked-choice voting tabulations released by the city Board of Elections on Tuesday. Mamdani won in the third round of ranked-choice with 56% of the vote, beating out second-place contender former Gov. Andrew Cuomo by 12 points.
Mamdani said he refused to be intimidated by Trump’s remarks.
“The President of the United States just threatened to have me arrested, stripped of my citizenship, put in a detention camp and deported. Not because I have broken any law but because I will refuse to let ICE terrorize our city,” Mamdani said in a statement. “His statements don’t just represent an attack on our democracy but an attempt to send a message to every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: if you speak up, they will come for you. We will not accept this intimidation.”
Trump lauds Adams
Trump also sang the praises of Mayor Adams, who last week launched his own independent reelection campaign after sitting out the Democratic primary.
“You have a good independent running, Mayor Adams, who’s a very good person,” Trump said.
The president, whose Justice Department successfully dismissed the mayor’s federal corruption case brought under former President Biden, said he “helped [Adams] out a little bit” when the mayor “had a problem” — referring to his indictment. Trump repeated the unfounded claim that Adams was charged because he frequently criticized Biden over the influx of 200,000-plus migrants into the city.
“He was unfairly hurt over this question,” Trump said. “He made a statement to the effect that ‘this is terrible, New York can’t have all these immigrants come in and he was indicted the following day. And I said ‘that was a phony indictment.’ And it was a phony indictment. It was a Biden indictment.”
The mayor was charged with soliciting and accepting unreported foreign travel perks and illicit campaign contributions from Turkish nationals in exchange for official favors. Federal Judge Dale Ho dismissed the charges in April at the DOJ’s behest, a decision Ho said was not based on the merits of the case.
The DOJ’s move fueled allegations that Adams engaged in a quid pro quo with Trump to have his charges dropped in exchange for carrying out the president’s immigration agenda in the five boroughs. Adams has repeatedly denied that he made a deal.
The city’s sanctuary laws bar the mayoral administration from collaborating with ICE on most deportation cases, which are civil matters. Adams insists he has followed those statutes while working with ICE on criminal investigations involving undocumented immigrants.
The mayor, when asked about Trump’s comments on arresting Mamdani, said no one should interfere with ICE’s operations in the city.
“The president makes his determination what he’s going to do,” Adams said following an unrelated Tuesday afternoon press conference at 1 Police Plaza. “I’m not a federal elected official. I keep saying, I’m the city elected official, the mayor of the greatest city in the world, that’s New York City.”
Adams declined to comment on Trump appearing to back his reelection bid.
Mamdani said Trump’s apparent support for Adams’ candidacy is “unsurprising, but highlights the urgency of bringing an end to this Mayor’s time in City Hall.
“It is a scandal that Eric Adams echoes this President’s division, distraction and hate,” he said. “Voters will resoundingly reject it in November.”
