NEW YORK (AP) — Zohran Mamdani wasted little time as mayor-elect of New York City before making clear that he sees part of his new role as standing up to the president of the United States, who had threatened not only to defund the city if he won but also to arrest and deport him.
Mamdani, a Democrat, addressed the Republican president directly and at length from the stage at his victory party in Brooklyn on Tuesday night.
“Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up,” he said, before declaring, “If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him.”
Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a naturalized American citizen after graduating from college, went on to cast himself as the embodiment of resistance.
“New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants and, as of tonight, led by an immigrant,” he said. “So hear me, President Trump, when I say this: To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.”
Trump, who has spent months insulting Mamdani and warning that the city would be ruined if he won, seemed to be watching.
“…AND SO IT BEGINS!” he posted on social media as Mamdani spoke.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist who campaigned on a slate of far-left progressive policies and a cheery optimism that stands in stark contrast to Trump’s darker and hard-line tactics, is expected to continue to face the president’s persistent political bashing — along with a federal government that may try to thwart his agenda.
‘Mayor Trump’
New York has remained relatively unscathed by Trump’s administration, as he has targeted cities including Los Angeles and Washington, dispatching the National Guard. The current mayor, Eric Adams, enjoyed an unusual alliance with the Republican president, whose administration dropped a federal corruption case against the mayor so he could better assist with the president’s immigration agenda.
Trump has threatened to slash federal funding to the city and mount an outright takeover — threats that became a cornerstone of Mamdani’s rivals’ campaigns against him.
“It will be Mayor Trump” if Mamdani wins, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during their last debate, warning that Mamdani was too inexperienced and too much of a target to effectively negotiate with the president.
As Mamdani rose from obscure state lawmaker to Democratic star, Trump and others in his party gleefully seized on his most controversial policy proposals and past statements, trying to cast Mamdani as the face of a new Democratic Party that is out of step with regular Americans.
“The Democrat Party has surrendered to radical socialist Zohran Mamdani and the far-left mob who are now running the show,” said National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Mike Marinella in a statement Tuesday night. “They’ve proudly embraced defunding the police, abolishing ICE, taxing hard-working Americans to death, and replacing common sense with chaos. Every House Democrat is foolishly complicit in their party’s collapse, and voters will make them pay in 2026.”
Echoes of Trump
Nearly a decade ago, Trump was the bold yet untested candidate who notched a remarkable political victory of his own after building a populist coalition, harnessing social media, commanding the media spotlight and promising a wave of change.
Those same qualities that propelled the Republican into the White House in 2016 have helped Mamdani rise to become the soon-to-be mayor of Trump’s hometown and the biggest city in the nation.
But rather than see Mamdani as a Democra
Originally published at https://apnews.com on November 5, 2025.
