NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Gov. Kathy Hochul said President Donald Trump was “picking a fight with 20 million New Yorkers” after the president threatened to arrest Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani if he’s elected mayor and doesn’t cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
Asked at a press conference in Florida about Mamdani saying he'd "stop masked ICE agents from deporting our neighbors," Trump told reporters, “Well then, we'll have to arrest him.”
“We don't need a communist in this country, but if we have one, I'm going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation,” Trump said of the Queens assemblyman, a democratic socialist who has proposed progressive policies on the campaign trail.
Hochul, who has not endorsed Mamdani for mayor, came to the lawmaker's defense nevertheless, writing on X, “I don't care if you're the President of the United States, if you threaten to unlawfully go after one of our neighbors, you're picking a fight with 20 million New Yorkers — starting with me.”
Mamdani officially won the Democratic primary on Tuesday, receiving 56% of the vote—to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 44%—on the third round of counting in the city’s ranked-choice voting system.
Responding to Trump’s threats, Mamdani said in a statement, “The President of the United States just threatened to have me arrested.”
"His statements don’t just represent an attack on our democracy but an attempt to send a message to every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: if you speak up, they will come for you. We will not accept this intimidation," Mamdani said.
“We will not accept this intimidation,” he added.