‘Trump Is Desperate’: Zohran Mamdani Hits Back, Says Attacks Are a Distraction

Zohran Mamdani, New York’s Democratic nominee for mayor, fired back at President Donald Trump on Wednesday, alleging the President’s escalating personal attacks are a “desperate” attempt to distract from his administration’s “war on working people.” Speaking to reporters, Mamdani framed the feud as a calculated move by Trump to divert public attention from his legislative agenda and his “betrayal” of working-class Americans.

The sharp rebuttal came after Trump unleashed a fresh tirade on his Truth Social platform, branding the Indian-origin candidate a “Communist Lunatic” and vowing to “save New York City.” This latest exchange marks a significant escalation in the war of words that began after Mamdani’s shock primary victory last month.

“Yesterday, Donald Trump said that I should be arrested, that I should be deported, that I should be de-naturalised,” Mamdani stated, referencing the President’s recent threats. “He said those things… less so because of who I am, because of where I come from, because of how I look or how I speak, and more so because he wants to distract from what I fight for.”

Mamdani accused Trump of abandoning the very voters he claimed to champion. “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, not just in the city, but across this country,” he declared.

The mayoral candidate alleged Trump would rather focus on him than discuss legislation that he claimed “will quite literally take healthcare away from Americans” and “steal food from the hungry.”

The feud has rapidly intensified since Mamdani, a 33-year-old self-described democratic socialist, defeated former Governor Andrew Cuomo. Trump has repeatedly attacked him, threatening to arrest him over his stance on immigration and even to take control of the city if he wins the November election. “As President of the United States, I’m not going to let this Communist Lunatic destroy New York,” Trump wrote on Wednesday.

Republicans have seized on Mamdani’s progressive platform and controversial past statements, including his pro-Palestinian advocacy and description of Israel’s war in Gaza as “genocide,” to cast him as a dangerous extremist.

Mamdani, who could become New York’s first immigrant mayor in generations, as well as its first Muslim and South Asian leader, argued the attacks on him are a warning to others. “If this is what Donald Trump and his administration feel comfortable about saying, about the Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City, imagine what they feel comfortable saying and doing about immigrants whose names they don’’t even know,” he said.