New York’s Indian-origin Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Thursday called US President Donald Trump “desperate,” accusing him of launching personal attacks to divert attention from what Mamdani said as Trump’s “war on working people.”
In a post on X, Mamdani wrote, “Donald Trump is attacking me because he is desperate to distract from his war on working people. We must and we will fight back.”
“Donald Trump said that I should be arrested. He said that I should be deported. He said that I should be denaturalised. And he said those things about me … because he wants to distract from what I fight for,” Mamdani said.
Since Mamdani’s win, they have repeatedly highlighted his most controversial past comments and positions, casting him as dangerous, a communist, and an antisemite, and trying to tie him to all other Democratic officials.
“I fight for the same people that he said he was fighting for. This is the same president who ran on a campaign of cheaper groceries, who ran on a campaign about easing the suffocating cost of living crisis. And ultimately, it is easier for him to fan the flames of division than to acknowledge the ways in which he has betrayed those working-class Americans.”
The president, who has a history of spewing sometimes vile insults at rivals, has in recent days escalated his attacks against the 33-year-old self-described democratic socialist. Trump has threatened to arrest Mamdani, to deport him and even to take over the country’s largest city if he wins the general election in November.
“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,” Trump wrote in an ominous message on his Truth Social site Wednesday morning. “I’ll save New York City, and make it ‘Hot’ and ‘Great’ again, just like I did with the Good Ol’ USA!”
Mamdani has faced sharp criticism from both sides of the political aisle for his outspoken pro-Palestinian stance. His labeling of Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide,” refusal to reject the phrase “globalize the intifada”—which many Jewish communities view as inciting violence—and his unwillingness to affirm Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state have drawn significant backlash.
His political ascent has exposed deep rifts within the Democratic Party. While progressives hail Mamdani’s rise as a signal of the party’s future—aligning him with figures like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—moderates see it as a troubling development. They argue it could hinder efforts to expand the party’s appeal and move away from polarizing positions that may have cost Democrats support in recent elections.
(This is a developing story)