While some Republicans are salivating over the possibility of a Zohran Mamdani victory in the hopes of painting Democrats as far-left extremists, Donald Trump doesn’t seem to be among them.
According to some people who have discussed the NY mayoral race with Trump, the lifelong New Yorker — save for his time in DC — doesn’t want to see his hometown fail under a socialist, even if it’d be a boon to the GOP.
Part of that is because of his real estate interests — his name is still on half a dozen buildings across the city, including Trump Tower, 40 Wall Street, Trump Parc, Trump Palace and Trump International Hotel. While he doesn’t own all of those properties outright, they still represent billions worth of value according to real estate experts.
He also has an ambitious immigration agenda that relies on local cities cooperating with ICE for deportations. Given New York City is more than double the size of any other city in the US — Gotham has 8.5 million residents while Los Angeles has 3.8 million — a mayor with a vendetta against Trump’s immigration agenda could make things far more challenging.
Then there is the fact that Trump loves the city — there is a reason he made a pilgrimage to solidly blue NYC and held a rally at Madison Square Garden days before the election when Kamala Harris was doubling down on swing states. He also spent years with the people who work at his properties and the employees of the Trump Organization who are still in New York.
“Trump is very motivated to keep Mamdani out — he isn’t interested in proving a point with New York City,” one source who has worked with Trump for years told me. “He still has a lot of real estate and a lot of employees in New York City.”
The White House maintains that Trump is staying out of the race.
But, as recently as last month, he posted on Truth Social, “As President of the United States, I’m not going to let this Communist Lunatic destroy New York. Rest assured, I hold all the levers, and have all the cards. I’ll save New York City, and make it ‘Hot’ and ‘Great’ again, just like I did with the Good Ol’ USA!”
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And Mamdani is clearly betting Trump’s interest in the race can be used as a cudgel to try to woo the Never-Trumpers in New York. Over the last week, Mamdani even launched a five-borough anti-Trump tour in an effort to make the election a referendum on the President.
“We know that there is no borough that will be free from Trump’s cruelty,” he said in a speech on Monday at the Service Employees International Union in Manhattan.
While New York is hardly a bastion of conservatism, sources close to Trump are betting that him meddling in the election wouldn’t have the kind of disastrous impact that Mamdani thinks it would.
“He did better in New York City than he has ever done,” one source who has discussed the mayoral race with Trump said. “And there are a lot of people who would never vote for him who are actually happy about the way he is handling antisemitism on campus and Israel.”
While he is unlikely to endorse anyone outright, I think we can expect to see Trump using his bully pulpit to bash Mamdani a few more times. Behind-the-scene, he could also potentially pressure other candidates to drop out of the race.
Trump could be involved in offering Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa or current mayor Eric Adams some position that would make it worth their while to leave the race. The Department of Justice could tighten the screws on existing investigations against Adams or Andrew Cuomo.
Meanwhile, others on the right are gunning for a Mamdani victory.
“Honestly … it [would make it] easier for [Elise] Stefanik to become governor and for the Republicans to win the midterms,” one Republican, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said. “A Mamdani victory big picture may not be so bad.”
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