WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump on Wednesday warned New York City’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to “be nice” to him following Mamdani’s historic election victory, saying the incoming mayor’s remarks had sounded “very angry.”
“I thought it was a very angry speech — certainly angry toward me,” Trump said during an interview with Fox News. “I think he should be nice to me. I’m sort of the one that has to approve a lot of things coming to him, so he’s off to a bad start.”
The president was responding to Mamdani’s election night speech, in which the 34-year-old mayor-elect declared: “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 called the statement “very dangerous,” adding, “He has to be a little bit respectful of Washington. Because if he’s not, he doesn’t have a chance of succeeding. I want to make him succeed — I want to make the city succeed. I don’t want to make him succeed personally, but I want the city to do well. We’ll see what happens.”
Reflecting on the broader election results, Trump noted that he had been following the races in “three pretty Democratic states,” adding, “I would like to see the new mayor do well, because I love New York. I really love New York.”
Mamdani, 34, made history on Tuesday by defeating independent candidate and former Governor Andrew Cuomo as well as Republican Curtis Sliwa, becoming the first Muslim and South Asian mayor of New York City — the largest city in the United States.
A self-described democratic socialist, Mamdani campaigned on a progressive platform centered on affordability and social welfare, promising free public buses, universal childcare, city-run grocery stores, rent-stabilized housing, and an increased minimum wage. – Courtesy Anadolu Agency