Trump warns New York City mayor-elect Mamdani to be 'nice'

Trump warns New York City mayor-elect Mamdani to be 'nice'
Donald Trump, American Business Forum in Miami
Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump urged New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to be "nice" to Washington, saying he approves "a lot of things" for the city and that the Democrat’s election-night remarks showed an "angry" tone toward him.

Trump said Mamdani’s victory speech struck him as "very angry" and cautioned that the incoming mayor should "be a little bit respectful of Washington."

"I am sort of the one that has to approve a lot of things coming to him, so he is off to a bad start," Trump told Fox News.

During the election night Mandani had directed a comment to the president.

"To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us," the mayor-elect said.

Trump called the phrasing "a very dangerous statement," and added, "If he is not [respectful], he does not have a chance of succeeding," he added.

The president said the new administration at City Hall would need cooperation with federal authorities to deliver on its agenda.

"I want to make the city succeed. I do not want to make him succeed. I want to make the city succeed, and we will see what happens."

Reflecting on the wider political picture, Trump said he watched closely as "three pretty Democratic states" voted and reiterated his personal stake in the city’s fortunes.

"I would like to see the new mayor do well, because I love New York. I really love New York," he said.

Mamdani, 34, won Tuesday’s election over independent candidate and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, becoming the first Muslim and South Asian mayor of the nation’s largest city. A self-described democratic socialist, he campaigned on affordability and social services, pledging free buses, universal childcare, city-run grocery stores, expanded rent-stabilised housing and a higher minimum wage.

Trump’s remarks set the tone for an early test of relations between City Hall and the White House, as the mayor-elect prepares to translate campaign promises into policy with federal sign-offs likely to shape the pace and scope of his programme.

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