In a surprising twist, Donald Trump has thrown his support behind Andrew Cuomo in a bid to prevent Zohran Mamdani from becoming the next Mayor of New York City. Despite their rocky history, Trump is endorsing Cuomo to counter Mamdani, a candidate he labels a ‘communist,’ as the election looms.

Trump has previously hinted at his preference for Cuomo over Mamdani, whom he views as a greater threat due to his socialist policies. However, a recent post on Truth Social marked Trump’s most direct endorsement of the former governor, urging New Yorkers to consider Cuomo’s leadership.

In his message, Trump issued a stark warning, suggesting he might cut federal funding to New York City should Mamdani win. “If Communist Candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the Election for Mayor of New York City, it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required, to my beloved first home,” Trump declared, emphasizing his belief that Mamdani’s leadership would jeopardize the city’s future.

Trump argued that Mamdani’s socialist approach would lead to a catastrophic economic and social decline, asserting that such principles have consistently failed throughout history. “This once great City has ZERO chance of success, or even survival!” he warned.

Despite their contentious past, Trump is backing Cuomo, citing his “record of success” as a reason to support him over Mamdani. The endorsement underscores the unusual political dynamics at play as New York City prepares for a pivotal mayoral election.

The president is instead choosing to back Cuomo, whom he said ‘had a record of success’ despite the pair’s long-running feud during Trump’s first term. 

Trump also dismissed voting for Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa as ‘a vote for Mamdani’ and cracked that the Guardian Angels’ founder ‘looks much better without the beret.’ 

‘Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job. He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!’

Donald Trump endorsed longtime rival Andrew Cuomo for NYC mayoral in an eleventh hour effort to stop socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani

Sliwa made no mention of Trump’s dig at his headgear but told The Daily Mail that Trump was being hypocritical.  

‘Even the President said Andrew Cuomo handled COVID horribly, destroyed New York, and was a total loser, and now Cuomo wants another shot at this city? The people will decide, and they’ll reject him again because New Yorkers won’t be bullied back into the past,’ he said.

Mamdani has yet to officially respond but sarcastically congratulated Cuomo when Trump leaned toward endorsing Cuomo Sunday.

‘Congratulations, @AndrewCuomo. I know how hard you worked for this,’ he wrote.

‘We need a mayor who can stand up to Donald Trump,’ Cuomo said. ‘Trump will go through Mamdani like a hot knife through butter.’

The Daily Mail has reached out to a spokesperson for Cuomo for comment. 

Trump ally and former head of the Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk also endorsed Cuomo on Monday.  

The president threatened refusing federal funds from New York during an appearance on CBS’ 60 Minutes after host Norah O’Donnell said Mamdani had been described as a left-wing version of Trump. 

‘Well, I think I’m a much better looking person than him, right?’ Trump said about Mamdani.

The president referred to Mamdani as a ‘communist’ and said the Big Apple would rot him 

His endorsement of Cuomo comes despite their very public disagreement over issues such as the way Cuomo handled Covid-19

O’Donnell pointed out that Mamdani, like Trump, has been described as ‘charismatic’ and breaking the old rules. 

The president was asked what would happen to his native NYC if Mamdani defeats Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa.

‘It’s gonna be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York,’ Trump said.’ Because if you have a Communist running New York, all you’re doing is wasting the money you’re sending there.’ 

Trump admitted that he doesn’t like Cuomo but that he would prefer the disgraced former governor win the election.  

‘If it’s gonna be between a bad Democrat and a Communist, I’m gonna pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you,’ Trump said. 

The president compared Mamdani to predecessor Bill de Blasio, who Trump termed ‘the worst mayor in history.’

Trump shut down Cuomo’s promise that if the leftist Mamdani won, Trump would become the real mayor of the city as ‘so crazy.’ 

The appearance on the show was his first since settling a lawsuit with CBS News over the newsmagazine’s interview with Kamala Harris.

The 34-year-old self-described democratic socialist is set to storm to victory in the election on November 4, the poll by JL Partners for the Daily Mail revealed.

He has a 15-point lead over his nearest rival, former New York state governor Andrew Cuomo.

The poll showed that many New Yorkers who do not support Mamdani are convinced he is going to ‘destroy’ America’s biggest metropolis and crater its economy, sending shockwaves across the rest of the country.

They think it could mark a return to the urban decay of the 1980s when the city was blighted by poverty, rampant crime, crumbling infrastructure and abandoned buildings.

Even among Mamdani’s own supporters more think he will make antisemitism in New York worse, rather than better.

Asked for one word to describe what the Big Apple would be like after four years of his left-wing policies, the most common response from non-Mamdani voters was ‘disaster.’

They also said a Mamdani-run New York would be ‘chaos,’ ‘hell,’ ‘broken,’ and a ‘s***hole.’ 

Among voters who have made up their minds, Mamdani was on 46 percent support, according to the poll.

Cuomo, running as an independent, was on 31 percent, Republican Curtis Sliwa on 22 percent, and the rest was shared among minor candidates.

Among voters aged under 30, Mamdani has a massive 35-point lead over Cuomo. Among Democrats, Mamdani has 54 percent support and Cuomo, who previously governed the state of New York as a Democrat, has 26 percent.

The poll found New Yorkers expect a wide array of the city’s problems to get worse under a ‘Mayor Mamdani,’ including crime, antisemitism and the economy.

It found 47 percent believe levels of crime and violence will get worse, with only 32 percent saying the city would be safer under Mamdani. 

On the issue of crime there was a stark split among New Yorkers based on age.

For voters under 30, 49 percent said they believed safety would improve under Mamdani, with 32 percent saying it would not.

But among over-65s only 26 percent thought the city would be safer under Mamdani and 50 percent said it would not.

Meanwhile, the poll found 43 percent of New Yorkers expect the number of businesses in the city to decrease under Mamdani, with stores going under and potential entrepreneurs forced to head elsewhere.

Only 23 percent thought the number of businesses would rise under the democratic socialist.

The poll showed 39 percent expected the risk of terrorism to increase under Mamdani, with only 18 percent thinking it will lessen. 

And 45 percent thought the problem of antisemitic views in the city would get worse, with only 21 percent thinking it would improve.

Even Democrats thought Mamdani would have a negative impact on antisemitism, with 29 percent saying he would make it better and 32 percent worse. 

Mamdani, who is running to be New York’s first Muslim mayor, was born in Uganda and moved to New York aged seven. 

His father is an academic and his mother a filmmaker. As a child he went to a private school in Manhattan where fees are now $66,000 a year.

Despite his ultra-privileged upbringing Mamdani is successfully appealing to working-class voters and young adults who find New York increasingly unaffordable to live in, with promises that he will bring their costs down.

His platform of policies includes a freeze on rent hikes, free bus services, fully-funded day care for under-5s, city-owned grocery stores, and turbocharging the minimum wage ultimately to $30 an hour.

Among voters aged under 30, Mamdani has a massive 35-point lead over Cuomo

He wants to fund those policies, which will cost billions of dollars, by raising taxes on the rich and companies.

There would be a 2 percent increase on New Yorkers earning over $1 million a year, and the top corporate tax rate would rise from 7.25 percent to 11.5 percent.

Critics say that will lead to a surge of firms and high-earning individuals leaving New York, which will in turn decimate the city’s tax revenue and Mamdani unable to pay for his policies.

President Donald Trump has branded Mamdani a ‘communist’ and threatened to cut off federal funding to the city if he is elected.

But the president is reportedly resigned to Mamdani winning, with it seemingly tooo late for Cuomo or Sliwa to catch up.