U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner (not pictured) and Rwanda’s Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe (not pictured) in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington D.C., June 27, 2025.
Ken Cedeno | Reuters
President Donald Trump said that Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani has “to do the right thing” if he is elected mayor of New York City, or he could see federal funding dry up.
“Let’s say this, if he does get in, I’m going to be president and he’s going to have to do the right thing, or they’re not getting any money,” Trump told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo during an interview that aired Sunday.
“He’s got to do the right thing,” Trump said.
It’s not the first time that Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding for local politicians, particularly those in blue states, whose positions he opposes.
He’s previously threatened to strip federal funding from California over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s policies towards transgender athletes participating in women’s sports.
While Trump took particular aim at Mamdani, the 33-year-old who defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the first round of the city’s Democratic mayoral primary last week, he also made a wider funding threat to all New York City mayoral candidates.
“I can tell you this, whoever’s mayor of New York is going to have to behave themselves, or the federal government is coming down very tough on them financially,” Trump told Bartiromo.
Trump has repeatedly called Mamdani — who is a Democratic socialist — a communist, as he did during the interview on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures.
Mamdani has rejected that label.
“I am not and I have already had to start to get used to the fact that the president will talk about how I look, how I sound, where I’m from, who I am,” Mamdani told NBC News’ Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press.”