Donald Trump's reaction after Zohran Mamdani, his “worst nightmare”, won the New York election. “Donald Trump, I know you're watching, turn up the volume,” Mamdani had told him
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who has described himself as “Trump's worst nightmare,” said he demonstrated how Democrats can defeat the president as he celebrated his election victory, claiming he knew the White House leader was watching him at those moments, Reuters and Sky News reported.
The young Democrat wasted no time and immediately criticized President Donald Trump, officially starting the battle that will likely define the relationship between the 34-year-old mayor and the president whose celebrity is tied to the city.
Mamdani: “Donald Trump, I know you're watching, turn up the volume”
“Donald Trump, I know you're watching, so I have four words for you: Turn up the volume!” Mamdani said Tuesday night during a speech to a raucous crowd of supporters in Brooklyn shortly after he was declared the winner.
The US President posted a message on his social network Truth Social as Mamdani spoke to the cheering crowd. “…AND SO IT BEGINS!” Trump wrote.
Mamdani also said in his inaugural speech in New York: “If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it's the city that gave birth to him. This is not only how we stop Trump, but also the next one.” Mamdani referred to the fact that Donald Trump, 79, was born in New York, the city where he also experienced the development of his business, wealth and notoriety.
What Trump says about the reasons for the defeats in the elections
Trump previously stated what he believed to be the reasons why Republicans suffered defeats in key elections.
He said that according to the polls, the fact that he himself was not running and that the US government's month-long budget impasse were the key factors that led to the election loss.
Democrats won three races on Tuesday in the first major election since Trump returned to power nine months ago, promoting a new generation of leaders and injecting new momentum into the struggling party ahead of next year's general election.
Mamdani has made combating the 79-year-old Republican president's actions in the city, particularly on immigration, a centerpiece of his campaign.
The next three years will test his ability to stand up to Trump, who has the biggest platform in the world and thrives on aggressive politics.
“If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to beat him, it's the city that launched him,” Mamdani told his supporters.
“And if there's any way to scare a despot, it's to dismantle the conditions that allowed him to accumulate power. That's not only how we stop Trump, but the next one,” the mayor-elect of New York emphasized.
“A Communist”
Trump has repeatedly used the enormous powers of the presidency against political rivals and, even before the election, had threatened to withhold billions of dollars in federal funds destined for New York City if Mamdani, a democratic socialist, was elected, writes Reuters.
This would have followed previous funding cuts made by the Trump administration as part of political moves targeting Democratic congressional leaders, also from this city.
“If you have a communist running New York, all you do is waste the money you send there,” Trump said on CBS's 60 Minutes on Sunday, anticipating how Republicans will use Mamdani's adoption of a socialist agenda as a line of attack against the Democratic Party.
Mamdani acknowledged his victory as a challenge to implement what he calls “the most ambitious agenda to combat the cost of living crisis this city has faced” since the 1940s, including a proposed rent freeze, universal child care and other government actions aimed at the private sector.
But in the meantime, Mamdani pledged to fight. “So listen to me, Mr. President Trump, when I say this: To get to any one of us, you're going to have to go through all of us,” Mamdani added.
