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- Trump continues to threaten to cut off NYC's federal funding if Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor.The city's fiscal year 2025 budget includes $9.7 billion in federal funding, about 8.3% of the total."He won't be getting any of it," Trump wrote on Monday. "So what's the point of voting for him?"
If Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor of New York City, the city could be in for a major standoff with the federal government.
President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would cut off federal funding for the city if Mamdani, a democratic socialist state assemblyman, becomes mayor.
"He is going to have problems with Washington like no Mayor in the history of our once great City," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Remember, he needs the money from me, as President, in order to fulfill all of his FAKE Communist promises. He won't be getting any of it, so what's the point of voting for him?"
Trump also said that Mamdani will "prove to be one of the best things to ever happen to our great Republican Party."
Mamdani is running on a platform of affordability, pledging a rent freeze, free buses, free childcare, and opening several city-owned grocery stores. He has proposed paying for it by imposing higher taxes on the wealthy.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to cut off the city's federal funding since Mamdani won the Democratic nomination in June, though it's unclear exactly which streams of federal funding the president would seek to restrict.
Mamdani's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the New York City Comptroller's Office, 8.3% of the city's $115 billion budget for fiscal year 2025 came from the federal government — a total of $9.6 billion. The bulk of that funding goes toward the city's Department of Education, Department of Social Services, and the Administration for Children's Services.
As with other attempts by the Trump administration to cut off federal funding, any move by Trump to restrict funding to New York City would likely lead to legal challenges.
Trump has not formally endorsed in the mayoral race, though he's suggested that he favors former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who's running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary.
"I would say that Cuomo might have a chance of winning, if it was a one-on-one," Trump said in the Oval Office earlier this month.
He has dismissed Curtis Sliwa, the GOP nominee, as "not exactly prime time."
Eric Adams, the current Democratic mayor, dropped out of the race on Sunday.
