According to a New York Post report, President Trump picked up the phone on Sunday and dialed billionaire John Catsimatidis, a man with one foot in every NYC borough’s backroom. His message was blunt: the New York City mayor’s race matters, and he will not sit by while a socialist claims City Hall.
“He is concerned about the New York City race. He does not want a socialist mayor, and he said, ‘It’s not going to happen under his watch,’” Catsimatidis told The Post.
In a rare moment of presidential intrusion into the city’s rough-and-tumble politics, Trump imposed a deadline: ten days for the field to thin. “At the end of the next 10 days, he wants the most qualified candidate to beat Mamdani,” Catsimatidis said.
Asked what the president might do if the deadline came and went, Catsimatidis smiled and offered only: “He’s going to do whatever he has to do.”
Behind the scenes, sources say Trump is exploring ways to edge Curtis Sliwa and Mayor Eric Adams aside, clearing a path for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The polls, stubborn as ever, keep Cuomo in second place, Sliwa limping in third, Adams further back.
The calculus is not born of affection. It is arithmetic. Mamdani’s numbers are frozen, his negatives high. Cuomo, for all his baggage, still looks like the only figure who might break through.
Either candidate dropping out would give a boost to Cuomo, the sources added.
News of the phone call — details until now kept quiet — broke just a day after word spread that top White House hands were searching for a soft landing for beleaguered mayor Eric Adams, hoping a new post might persuade him to abandon his lonely independent run.
Trump sets deadline to thin field in crowded NYC mayoral race in attempt to fight off Mamdani: ‘He’s going to do whatever he has to do’ https://t.co/yrtqYgsmW3 pic.twitter.com/pSNjqANFXs
— New York Post (@nypost) September 4, 2025
