Trump Endorses Cuomo on Eve of New York City Election, Calls Mamdani a ‘Communist Candidate’

US President Donald Trump issued a last minute endorsement of Andrew Cuomo on Monday night, urging New Yorkers to vote for the independent candidate over progressive Muslim front-runner Zohran Mamdani in today’s New York City mayoral election. 

“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!”

In the lengthy post, Trump called Mamdani “the Communist Candidate” and warned that if he wins, it is “highly unlikely” the federal government will provide New York City with funds beyond “the very minimum as required.” Trump wrote that under Mamdani, the city “has ZERO chance of success, or even survival,” adding, “I would much rather see a Democrat, who has had a record of success, WIN, than a Communist with no experience.”

The president also took aim at Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, saying “a vote for Curtis Sliwa (who looks much better without the beret!) is a vote for Mamdani.”

Cuomo, speaking at a late-night event in New York City, dismissed the thought that Trump’s endorsement represented an alliance. “He’s not endorsing me, he’s opposing Mamdani,” the former governor said after Mamdani’s campaign accused him of being “the president’s puppet.”

Mamdani responded sharply to Trump’s attack, telling CNN, “Donald Trump is threatened by our campaign. He’s threatened by it because, like his, we’ve diagnosed the crisis in working-class New Yorkers’ lives — the cost of living — but unlike him, we’re actually going to deliver on that.”

The endorsement came hours before polls were set to open at 6 a.m. Tuesday, November 4, in one of the city’s most historic races in decades. 

Two new surveys released Monday showed the contest tightening, as Mamdani had been a clear favorite up until the past couple weeks. A Suffolk University poll put Mamdani at 44 percent, Cuomo at 34 percent, and Sliwa at 11 percent. But an Atlas Intelligence poll released later in the day showed a narrower margin, with Mamdani leading 43.9 percent to Cuomo’s 39.4 percent, while Sliwa held 15.5 percent. In a head-to-head matchup, the poll found Cuomo would edge Mamdani 49.7 to 44.1 percent.

If Mamdani wins, he would become New York City’s first Muslim and socialist mayor and its youngest in more than a century. Cuomo, a former Democratic governor now running as an independent, is positioning himself as a centrist alternative to Mamdani’s progressive campaign and Sliwa’s conservative platform.