Zohran Mamdani details how he'd combat Trump — and where they could work together

On the precipice of winning next week’s New York mayoral contest, Zohran Mamdani cast himself in an interview with NBC News as the city’s bulwark against President Donald Trump, even as Trump has threatened his hometown over the prospect of a Mamdani victory

On the precipice of winning next week’s New York mayoral contest, Zohran Mamdani cast himself in an interview with NBC News as the city’s bulwark against President Donald Trump, even as Trump has threatened his hometown over the prospect of a Mamdani victory.

In the interview, Mamdani, a state assemblyman, laid out his strategy for handling Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in New York City and projected confidence about running the city at age 34.

Asked what scares him most about the job now that he is on the verge of leading the nation’s biggest city, Mamdani — who was once seen as a long-shot candidate — instead took aim at his chief rival, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running against him as a third-party candidate.

Mamdani explains how he would protect New Yorkers from potential Trump immigration enforcement01:32“I think what scares me in this moment is the prospect of Donald Trump’s puppet becoming the one who would hold it,” Mamdani said. “And that’s what we find in Andrew Cuomo, a man who knows he has a narrow path to City Hall and has taken that to mean that he should fund it and pave it with the money from Donald Trump’s billionaire donors."

“I am very excited at the prospect of winning this race, but I will never let our confidence become complacency,” he continued. “And so every single day, I remind myself, I remind our supporters, I remind our team of the fact that this is an election to be won. It’s not one that will ever be given to us.”