Cuomo hopes Trump will help him beat Mamdani

[Celerity]

"I feel good about that," the New York mayoral candidate told a closed-door Hamptons fundraiser.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/19/cuomo-mamdani-trump-new-york-00514408


New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo doesn't want President Donald Trump's endorsement, but he's hoping for his implicit support. | Yuki Iwamura/AP

NEW YORK — Andrew Cuomo is counting on President Donald Trump and top Republicans to tell the party faithful to vote for him if they want to stop Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani from becoming the next mayor of New York. Cuomo even thinks the president could tell GOP voters to not support the Republican nominee, Curtis Sliwa, in the November election. The alternative, he says, is a democratic socialist leading the nation’s biggest city.

“We can minimize [the Sliwa] vote, because he’ll never be a serious candidate,” Cuomo told the crowd at a Hamptons fundraiser Saturday, according to audio obtained by POLITICO. “And Trump himself, as well as top Republicans, will say the goal is to stop Mamdani. And you’ll be wasting your vote on Sliwa. So I feel good about that.”

Publicly, Cuomo — a Democrat and the former governor of New York — has shunned the idea of getting any help from Trump. Cuomo said he’d decline an endorsement, and denied a New York Times report that he’d spoken with the president about the race. But Cuomo seemed hopeful for the president’s help behind closed doors, speaking to the more Trump-friendly crowd gathered at media mogul Jimmy Finkelstein’s home in Southampton — the ultra-wealthy Long Island enclave 80 miles east of New York City.

Another co-host of the fundraiser, former New York City Council President Andrew Stein, told the Times he briefed Trump last month on how Cuomo had the best chance to beat Mamdani in the general election. And Trump may be receptive, Stein suggested to the publication. The president’s heart is still with New York, and “he doesn’t want a communist and socialist running the city.”

snip

[no_hypocrisy]

1. HA! That might happen if TSF endorses . . . MAMDANI.

[mainer]

2. He makes me like Mamdani even more

It’s time for the next generation to take over and fix our generation’s screwups.

[SheltieLover]

3. Why is cuomo so desperate to be mayor again?

Really strange, imo.

Surely he has more money than he could possibly spend...

Sickening imo.

[SocialDemocrat61]

14. He's desperate to be Mayor because

his father ran for mayor of nyc and lost. He wants to out do his father. Most of his choices are driven by his daddy issues.

[Bettie]

4. So, he was at a closed door fundraiser, no doubt

full of VERY wealthy people, to ensure that ordinary people don't get the person who would advocate for them.

Mamdani has suggested that maybe government (city government in this case) should work for for The People, not just the ones with all the money, and that is unacceptable to the very wealthy (with a few exceptions).

We're in the era of robber barons again....people who want to hoard all of the wealth of a nation and will scream bloody murder if a single penny goes to "the poors" which includes everyone beyond that 1% (heck, the .01% resent money going to the 1%).

[yardwork]

7. Seems pretty clear.

[JBTaurus83]

5. He is so pathetic

Just go away. I think a Dump endorsement would put him even more in the basement with voters there.

[Bengus81]

6. A "Democrat" speaking to and fund raising with rich Trump humpers out in the Hampton's

but will be the man for all in NYC. ROFLOL!!

How many times have we heard that kind of crap before??

[yardwork]

8. Disgusting.

I don't understand this fear of a "democratic socialist" being mayor of NYC.

What are they afraid he'll do? Tax the rich?

[Bettie]

9. Remember when the "third rail" of politics was

Social Security? Now it's even the suggestion that the ultra wealthy pay more in taxes.

[GreenWave]

10. Talk about trading with the enemy...

[mountain grammy]

11. recommend for the comment at the end which bears repeating.

[allegorical oracle]

12. Well, that makes sense. Everybody knows how popular djt is in NY.

[Mz Pip]

13. If Mamdani is so awful

WTF is the GOP so afraid of? He either won’t get elected of if he’s elected, he’ll fail miserably and the naysayers can crow “I told you so!” Seems like a lot of unnecessary clutching of pearls over a mayoral race.

Or maybe they’re worried Mamdani will be successful and his policies will be effective. NYC won’t collapse under the weight of some imaginary communist hammer and the GOP will look as ridiculous as they are.

Mz Pip