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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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In the months since Zohran Mamdani’s surprise victory in the Democratic primary to run for New York City mayor, President Donald Trump has ramped up his attacks on the man on the verge of becoming the leader of the nation’s largest city.
Trump has branded Mamdani a “communist,” questioned his citizenship and threatened to arrest him. Beyond that, the president has suggested he would withhold federal funding or deploy federal troops to New York City if Mamdani is elected mayor.
“As President of the United States, I’m not going to let this Communist Lunatic destroy New York,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site in July. “Rest assured, I hold all the levers, and have all the cards.”
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Mamdani, a state lawmaker and self-described democratic socialist who would be the city’s first Muslim and Indian American mayor, has called Trump’s comments an “attack on our democracy” and an attempt to intimidate New Yorkers.
With the latest polls showing Mamdani with a sizable lead over former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa, Newsweek takes a look at the ways Trump could respond to a Mamdani victory in the general election this week.
Newsweek has contacted the White House and Mamdani's campaign for comment via email.
Ramp Up Immigration Enforcement
The Trump administration could move to ramp up immigration enforcement in New York City, as it has done in Los Angeles and Chicago, if Mamdani is elected.
Mamdani’s campaign platform includes pledges for “Trump-proofing” the city, saying his mayoral administration would work to get Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) out of New York City facilities, end cooperation with the agency, increase legal support for immigrants and protect personal data.
“Well, then we’ll have to arrest him,” Trump said in July when asked about Mamdani’s focus on getting ICE out of the city.
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said the Trump administration would “double down and triple down” on immigration enforcement in sanctuary cities like New York City when asked about Mamdani’s platform.
While sanctuary city policies limit local law enforcement’s cooperation with ICE, the agency can still increase operations, employer audits and courthouse arrests in New York City.
Sue the City
The White House could seek to challenge a Mamdani administration in the courts, especially over immigration enforcement.
The administration sued New York City in July over local laws that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, saying the statutes unlawfully thwart immigration arrests and conflict with federal immigration law.
Threaten to Withhold Funds
In June, Trump threatened to withhold federal funding if Mamdani “doesn’t behave himself” if he is elected.
He repeated those threats last month, saying that he “wouldn’t be generous to a communist, a guy that’s going to take the money and throw it out the window.”
He added: “We’re not going to let somebody get into office and squander the taxpayer money from this country.”
But John Mollenkopf, the director of the Center for Urban Research at CUNY, told Newsweek that "one good thing is that the Federal government contribution to the New York City budget is comparatively small and driven by federal regulation (such as aid to the school system)."
Last month, White House budget director Russell Vought said the Trump administration was pausing about $18 billion in funding for infrastructure projects to “ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] principles.”
Increase Federal Oversight
The Trump administration could seek to condition federal funds on compliance with specific priorities, such as cooperation with ICE, or initiate investigations into city agencies or projects.
Deploy Federal Officers
In recent months, Trump has deployed National Guard troops to help implement his agenda on crime and immigration in several Democrat-led cities including Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Last month, he suggested that he may deploy troops to New York City if Mamdani is elected.
He said: “We’re not going to ruin one of our great cities because we’ll make that great. We will clean up the crime in about 30 days. It took 12 days to do Washington, D.C., so New York is bigger, and Chicago, we've already made a lot of progress despite fighting from the government.”
What People Are Saying
Grant Reeher, a professor of political science at Syracuse University, told Newsweek that “all of those could be tried or employed, with lawsuits and federal officers going in being the most likely I’d think.”
He said that “politically, the main idea would be to complicate Mamdani’s efforts as mayor, so that his administration is perceived as failing by the 2026 midterms.”
But he added: “Strategically, I think this is ill-founded. Mamdani is going to have his hands more than full, absent complications from the administration. Trump might consider just letting it go, and counting on normal NYC politics and challenges to create havoc in a new Mamdani administration. If he gets too involved, it gives the Democrats a foil to point to in explaining why things in New York aren’t going well.”
John Mollenkopf, director of the Center for Urban Research at the City University of New York, told Newsweek: "On the one hand, Trump has threatened all out war against a Mamdani mayoralty. And he has experts in thinking about how to put the screws to city governments to help him do so. He does things that may turn out to be impermissible legally, but he acts before finding out.
"On the other hand, Trump still has lots of close connections in many influential positions in the NYC business world, and he will probably ask them how to proceed. He probably will not be inclined to do things that would seriously hurt their interests."
But he added that "it is not as easy for Donald Trump to cause pain to a newly elected mayor as he may think it is."
President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform in June: “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!”
Asked about Trump’s threats, Zohran Mamdani said on CNN on Thursday that the “most effective way to push back on his threats is to actually name them for what they are, and then use every tool at your disposal to take them on.”
He added: “I think the first thing that you do is you close the door that [outgoing Mayor] Eric Adams opened to the NYPD doing civil immigration enforcement.”
What’s Next
The mayoral election will take place on November 4.
Update 11/3/25, 6:45 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to add comment from John Mollenkopf.
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