New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani said President Trump’s donors “will not dictate” the race, hours after embattled incumbent Mayor Eric Adams (D) ended his independent reelection bid.
“Donald Trump and his billionaire donors may be able to determine the actions of Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo, but they will not dictate the results of this election,” Mamdani said Sunday evening on MSNBC. “This continues to be the same election as it was when we started on October 23rd [2024].”
Adams dropped out of the race Sunday, just more than three weeks after he vowed to stay in it. The mayor, who was running an independent campaign since April, reportedly met with White House special envoy Steve Witkoff earlier this month to discuss a potential role in the administration.
Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, also said last week that he has received monetary offers from wealthy New Yorkers to drop out of the race. It is unclear however whether those would-be benefactors, whom Sliwa did not name, are Trump donors.
Cuomo, the Democratic former New York governor who is running an independent mayoral campaign, denied speaking to Trump after a New York Times report said the two talked over the phone. Mamdani, who defeated Cuomo and a host of contenders to win the Democratic nod in a shock upset over the summer, slammed Trump’s reported efforts to reduce the contest to a two-person race.
“Donald Trump has spoken time and again about how he wants to narrow this race, how he wants to use every tool at his disposal to try and stop this campaign for affordability,” Mamdani told MSNBC on Sunday. “And we’re seeing amidst all of that here, yet again, the moment where he is shaping this race.
“But we’re going to show him that New Yorkers are tired of his politics, and they’re tired of being priced out of the city.”
Mamdani’s comments echo those in a video he posted to the social platform X shortly after Adams dropped out of the race. In the video, Mamdani criticized the mayor’s record and issued a warning to Cuomo.
“To Andrew Cuomo. You got your wish. You wanted Trump and your billionaire friends to help you clear the field. But don’t forget. You wanted me as your opponent in the primary too, and we beat you by 13 points.”
In a poll released last week by Suffolk University CityView, 45 percent of respondents backed Mamdani, while Cuomo, Sliwa and Adams garnered support from 25 percent, 9 percent and 8 percent of respondents, respectively.