Politics Trump says Mamdani must ‘do the right thing’ if elected mayor of New York City — or risk losing funding

CNBC.com ^ | Sun, Jun 29 2025•12:44 PM EDT | Erin Doherty

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Key Points

• President Donald Trump said that Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has to “do the right thing” if he’s elected, “or they’re not getting any money.”

• “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 said.

• Trump has previously threatened to cut funding for Democratic-led cities and states whose policies he disagrees with.

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...

[beethovenfan]

He’ll do the Muslim thing. Trump is naive about Islam.