NYC supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis raged over the stunning win by Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani — who infamously proposed creating publicly run grocery stores.
“I don’t give a s–t about grocery stores!” Catsimatidis fumed in a brief phone interview Wednesday, voicing his frustration about Mamdani’s plans for the city.
The billionaire founder of Red Apple Group — which has a vast empire that spans media, real estate, fossil fuels and the Gristedes and D’Agostino’s grocery chains — also expressed concern about “the quality of life” deteriorating.
“New York can’t afford to lose more people,” Catsimatidis said.
He said he was most concerned about the threat of Mamdani cutting the police force and about whom the mayor-elect appoints to judgeships.
Hizzoner has the power to appoint hundreds of judges to family, criminal and civil courts, along with administrative law and housing court judges. The mayor fills hundreds of additional posts.
Mamdani infamously called to defund the police in 2020 but has since changed his tune, promising not to shrink the NYPD’s numbers or budget.
He tweeted in 2020, “We don’t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety. What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD” — but he walked that back, too.
Mamdani now says the remarks were made in “frustration” about the “murder of George Floyd.”
Catsimatidis urged Gov. Kathy Hochul to strengthen her oversight of the city.
“The burden is on the Governor’s office right now and [Hochul] needs to keep her thumb” on the city, he said, echoing a recent Post editorial.
Catsimatidis also weighed in on whether President Trump will cut federal funding to his hometown.
“The president of the United States is going to make sure that the federal funds New York City gets are used properly,” Catsimatidis said.
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