As the New York mayor election nears, Cuomo can’t go soft on Trump now
As the race for New York City mayor nears its end, the shrinking pool of undecided voters is being shaped by moral confrontation and identity politics. It is terrain where Zohran Mamdani, the out-of-nowhere Democratic primary winner, excels. It is also where Andrew Cuomo, the former Democratic governor turned independent candidate, risks appearing weak when seen as “soft” on that city’s bogeyman, President Trump.
Mamdani has made opposing Trump a central theme of his campaign. Cuomo has not. Although Cuomo has broadly opposed the president in the past, he has avoided making that opposition a defining message this time around. It is a curious strategy, especially considering Cuomo’s strong anti-Trump record as governor, and with most likely voters saying the next mayor should take a strong stand against the president on immigration, threats of withholding federal funding, and more.
Indeed, Cuomo has called himself the “last person” Trump would want as mayor — but not because of who he is. Rather, his reasoning is that a Mamdani administration would make Democrats look so bad it would be a “gift” to Trump. He insists that Trump plays no role in his campaign. When asked about a reported secret phone call with Trump, Cuomo claimed they did not discuss the mayoral race.
At a mayoral forum held last week by Crain’s magazine, Mamdani invoked Trump twice — both times to rally the room against the president’s threats to choke off federal aid to the city. He told the business audience that the first job of the next mayor is to “interrogate the legality” of any Trump edict and then “fight.” Cuomo, in contrast, mentioned Trump only once, and only in passing while referencing the pandemic.
Soon after, Cuomo missed a key opportunity to show strength when New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) was indicted on fraud and false statement charges by a prosecutor whom Trump had hand-picked. Mamdani, on the other hand, joined other Democrats in lower Manhattan to protest. Cuomo issued a statement warning against weaponizing the justice system “whether it comes from the right or the left,” without naming either James or Trump. This is a far cry from the Cuomo who told Trump in 2020, “We don’t have a king,” or who threatened to sue Washington over defunding threats.
Of course, the fact that James had aggressively investigated claims of sexual harassment against Cuomo when he was governor might have played a role.
Mamdani, though lacking Cuomo’s anti-Trump gubernatorial record, has made up for it with rhetoric that energizes liberal New Yorkers. Last week, Trump mused on Truth Social that a Mamdani win would end federal aid to New York. He charged, “He needs the money from me, as president, in order to fulfill all of his FAKE Communist promises. He won’t be getting any of it.”
Mamdani wasted no time responding. “What this city deserves is someone who will fight for it,” he said, calling Trump a president who “looks at this city as something to be punished every day.” He’s capitalized on Cuomo’s lack of clarity on Trump. On CNN he added that “Donald Trump is clearing the way for Andrew Cuomo, because Donald Trump knows that Cuomo will clear the way for Trump’s agenda.”
Speaking to the New Yorker, Mamdani said, “And I think we’ve seen in his first term and his second term that what Donald Trump most often respects is strength. It is not cowardice. It’s not collaboration like we saw from [Mayor Eric Adams], or coordination like we’re seeing from Cuomo. It’s someone who’s willing to stand up and fight back.”
Earlier this year, when reports emerged that Trump had encouraged Adams to drop out, Mamdani was quick to accuse Andrew Cuomo of being, “as long suspected,” Trump’s preferred candidate. When it was later reported that Trump might back Cuomo, Mamdani declared during a five-borough tour that his administration would be “Trump’s worst nightmare.” He asked, “How else can you describe a president who has proposed denaturalizing the Democratic nominee of New York City?”
His campaign says that internal polling shows that framing Trump as an abuser of power resonates with voters in New York, where Trump is largely reviled, even if he is a son of the city.
There is still time for Cuomo to reconsider his approach; the election is Nov. 4. Polls show that most undecided voters say “strength against Trump” is a decisive factor in their choice. On that question, Cuomo trails Mamdani, but by only one point, perhaps because many New Yorkers remember his record as governor.
He would do well to harness the anti-Trump energy or give voters a compelling reason to believe he would be a wartime mayor. If he doesn’t, then whatever future he imagines in politics will be decided here. Win or lose, this is the moment to remind a distrustful, mobilized and decisively anti-Trump electorate of some of the better parts of who he was and could still be.
William Liang is a writer living in San Francisco.