US President Donald Trump has claimed that the United States had lost "sovereignty" after New Yorkers elected Zohran Mamdani as their next mayor, while Mamdani stated he was ready to engage with his critics on the issue of the cost of living.
"We'll take care of it," Trump said on Wednesday without explaining what he meant, while claiming the country's largest city would become communist.
In a speech in Miami a day after Mamdani's convincing victory, Trump added that the Florida city "will soon be the refuge for those fleeing communism in New York."
"The decision facing all Americans could not be more clear: We have a choice between communism and common sense," he said, also casting the choice as between an "economic nightmare" and an "economic miracle."
Trump also said that "we want New York to be successful", and he might offer US assistance to Mamdani. "We'll help him, a little bit maybe."
Blue wave in US
The speech marked the first anniversary of Trump's election victory against Democrat Kamala Harris.
"We rescued our economy, regained our liberty, and together we saved our country on that magnificent night 365 days ago," Trump told his audience of supporters.
Mamdani's mayoral race win came despite fierce attacks on his policies and Muslim heritage from business elites, conservative media commentators and Trump himself.
"If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him," Mamdani said in a victory speech late on Tuesday.
Mamdani's win, as well as the Democratic Party's other victories in the governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey, suggested a shift in political mood as the country looks toward next year's midterm elections, when control of Congress will be up for grabs.
 
In another significant win for Democrats, voters in California approved a proposition to redraw electoral districts in a bid to neutralise gerrymandering efforts ordered by Trump in other states.
Trump refused to take any blame for Tuesday's results.
In a post on his Truth Social network, he cited anonymous "pollsters" suggesting the Republican defeats were due to the government shutdown and the fact that his own name wasn't on the ballots.
‘Work together to serve New Yorkers’
Meanwhile, Mamdani said on Wednesday that he was ready to engage with Trump on the issue of cost of living.
The Muslim-American lawmaker, whose rapid ascent from rank outsider to mayor-elect has stunned observers, joked at a briefing that the "White House hasn't reached out to congratulate me."
"I continue to be interested in having a conversation with President Trump on the ways in which we can work together to serve New Yorkers," he said suggesting "delivering on his campaign promises around cost of living" as one.
Mamdani, like Trump, put the high cost of living, impact of inflation and elevated grocery expenses at the heart of his campaign which triumphed over former governor Andrew Cuomo's platform.
"I think the lesson for the president is that it's not enough to diagnose the crisis in working class Americans lives. You have to deliver on addressing that crisis."
Mamdani on Wednesday introduced the five women who will co-chair his transition. Among them is Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission under Joe Biden, and Maria Torres-Springer, who resigned her post as deputy mayor under outgoing mayor Eric Adams due to his engagement with Trump.
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Source: TRT