The New York City mayoral race of 2025 has taken a turn for the surreal, with former Governor Andrew Cuomo, progressive firebrand Zohran Mamdani, incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, and Republican Curtis Sliwa all embroiled in a contest that’s become as much about national intrigue as local politics. As Labor Day passed, what was already a chaotic race exploded into something even stranger, with President Donald Trump’s allies reportedly attempting to clear the field for Cuomo, a move that has sent shockwaves through the city’s political establishment and left voters wondering just who is pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Cuomo, who re-entered the race after a bruising primary defeat, has been laser-focused on turning the contest into a two-person showdown with Mamdani. According to reporting from New York Magazine, his campaign has worked overtime to sideline other contenders, savaging Mamdani over everything from his rent-stabilized apartment and ties to the Democratic Socialists of America to his vacation in Uganda and his evolving positions on policing. The strategy was clear: force a head-to-head matchup and hope to rally moderates and institutional Democrats wary of Mamdani’s progressive agenda.
But the plan hit a snag. Despite a wave of post-primary enthusiasm and a flush of donor cash, Adams’s campaign failed to catch fire. By early September, Adams was polling in the single digits, his campaign battered by a cascade of scandals—cash bribes hidden in potato chip bags, aides indicted for trading favors, and a series of lawsuits from senior police officials alleging a culture of corruption at the NYPD. Sliwa, meanwhile, was polling in the mid-teens, his proposal to unleash a feral-cat brigade to combat the city’s rat problem somehow the least bizarre storyline in the race.
Then came the bombshell: in the week after Labor Day, The New York Times reported that Trump’s inner circle, including adviser Steve Witkoff, had met with Adams in Florida to discuss his future. The implication was clear—Trump’s team was trying to persuade both Adams and Sliwa to drop out, offering plum administration jobs or cushy sinecures to clear a path for Cuomo. Trump himself told reporters, “I’d prefer not to have a communist mayor of New York City,” a pointed jab at Mamdani’s leftist credentials.
The response from the candidates was swift and dramatic. Mamdani, who had won the Democratic primary with a platform calling the NYPD a rogue organization and capitalism “theft,” immediately called an emergency press conference on September 3. “I’ve heard rumors of this for months,” he said, accusing Cuomo of backroom deals with Trump. “The president knows that Andrew Cuomo represents the very kind of politics that he practices. He knows that he could pick up the phone and have a conversation with him without even having to consider the impact it would have on New Yorkers and that the entire conversation would be about the two of them and their interests.”
Cuomo, for his part, denied any involvement in Trump’s maneuvering. Speaking to donors in the Hamptons, he acknowledged knowing Trump well and speculated that “there’s a big piece of him that actually wants redemption in New York.” But on September 5, he insisted, “I don’t want him involved in anything to do with my race.” He flatly denied reports from The New York Times that he had spoken by phone with Trump about the race, and said he had not sought—and would not accept—Trump’s endorsement.
Adams, meanwhile, held his own press conference, lambasting Cuomo as “a snake and a liar” and declaring that only the sitting mayor could beat Mamdani. Yet the damage was done. The Times’ revelation that Adams had secretly flown to Florida to meet with Witkoff suggested he was at least aware of his campaign’s precarious position, if not actively seeking an exit ramp.
As for Sliwa, he remained defiant, repeatedly telling reporters he had no interest in a White House job and was staying in the race. But the rumors persisted, and the spectacle of a sitting president’s team trying to manipulate the outcome of a mayoral election in America’s largest city was enough to set off alarm bells across the political spectrum. Democratic strategist Trip Yang put it plainly to The Hill: “This is a very unusual intervention by a sitting president in a mayoral race.”
The motivations for Trump’s involvement are as murky as they are debated. Some Republicans see an upside to a Mamdani victory, believing his progressive platform could serve as a useful foil for the GOP in upcoming midterms. But others argue Trump simply wants to prevent a leftist from taking the helm in his hometown, a city that remains a cornerstone of the Trump family business, even as the president now resides in Florida. “Sometimes the president is adversarial towards New York, but it is his home,” noted New York Democratic strategist Jon Reinish. “He and his family certainly have, as well as business leaders who work with him in whatever capacity, are concerned about the viability of New York City. So it’s not just politics.”
The political calculus for Democrats is equally fraught. Top party leaders like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have withheld formal endorsements for Mamdani, saying only that they are in conversations with him. Critics argue Mamdani’s proposals are unrealistic and would hurt the city’s economy; Mamdani counters that such claims are simply the wealthy seeking to preserve the status quo.
For Mamdani and his allies, the Trump-Cuomo connection has become a potent weapon. “When Trump, Cuomo and Adams scheme behind closed doors, they’re not worried about your future or the city you’re struggling to afford,” Mamdani posted on X. “It’s only about their own power.” On September 4, he even challenged Trump to a direct debate, writing, “If @realDonaldTrump is serious about intervening in the mayoral race, he should come to New York City and debate me directly.”
Meanwhile, Cuomo’s campaign is caught in a bind. Polls show him trailing Mamdani by around 15 points, but in a head-to-head matchup, some surveys suggest a dead heat—or even a narrow Cuomo lead. Mamdani, for his part, has struggled to break 40 percent in the polls and has spent the summer working to consolidate support from Democratic officials and labor unions, many of whom had previously backed Cuomo. But the challenge remains: should he present himself as a mainstream Democrat to appeal to the city’s overwhelming Democratic majority, or double down on the outsider idealism that energized his primary campaign?
For now, the race has become a referendum on outside influence and the future of New York’s political identity. As Morris Katz, a senior Mamdani adviser, told New York Magazine, “It’s a race between Zohran and Donald Trump.” Whether that framing will help Mamdani rally the city’s famously independent voters—or backfire by making the contest about national personalities rather than local issues—remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: in a city known for political theater, the 2025 mayoral race has set a new standard for unpredictability.