PoliticselectionsPresidential Elections
Trump Endorses Cuomo in New York City Mayoral Race
In a stunning political maneuver that has upended the final hours of New York City's mayoral race, former President Donald Trump has thrown his weight behind former Governor Andrew Cuomo, a man he once publicly feuded with, in a desperate attempt to block democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani from claiming City Hall. The endorsement, delivered via Trump's Truth Social platform on the eve of the election, was less a ringing affirmation of Cuomo and more a scorched-earth condemnation of Mamdani, whom Trump labeled a 'Communist' and declared would receive 'ZERO' federal support from his administration.'A vote for [Republican candidate] Curtis Sliwa (who looks much better without the beret!) is a vote for Mamdani,' Trump strategized with his characteristic blend of political calculus and personal insult, adding, '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.He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!' This tactical alliance, forged in the fires of mutual opposition, reveals a political landscape where old rivalries are secondary to ideological warfare, a theme Trump had already telegraphed in his '60 Minutes' interview just a day prior, where he bluntly stated, 'I'm not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other, but if it's gonna be between a bad Democrat and a Communist, I'm gonna pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you. ' The immediate fallout has been a whirlwind of rapid-response campaigning, with Mamdani's team preemptively slapping a 'Trump endorses Cuomo' poster across social media, a move straight out of the opposition research playbook designed to tether the independent candidate to the polarizing former president.Cuomo, for his part, seized on the 'bad Democrat' label not to distance himself from Trump, but to reaffirm his own partisan bona fides to a Democratic base skeptical of his independent run, firing back on X: 'Trump called me a bad Democrat? No I'm a good Democrat. A proud Democrat.Because when I lead, I protect our values and our people. ICE and the National Guard coming into New York City under my watch? Never.It didn't happen when I was Governor and it won't happen when I'm the next Mayor of New York City. ' This three-way political melee, with Mamdani holding a commanding lead of 46.1% against Cuomo's 31. 8% and Sliwa's 16.3% according to RealClearPolitics, is more than a local contest; it's a proxy battle for the soul of the Democratic party and a testing ground for Republican strategy heading into the 2026 midterms, with GOP operatives already planning to 'weaponize' a potential Mamdani victory nationwide. The historical irony is thick, recalling the bitter Trump-Cuomo clashes during the COVID-19 pandemic, a period of daily press briefings where the two leaders traded barbs over federal response and state authority. That this same relationship has now evolved into a transactional, last-minute endorsement underscores a brutal political reality: in high-stakes elections, the enemy of your enemy is your temporary, and deeply awkward, ally.
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#Trump
#Cuomo
#Mamdani
#NYC mayor race
#endorsement
#election eve
