(NEW YORK) — New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani told “Good Morning America” on Wednesday that he would not be “intimidated” by potential threats from President Donald Trump to deploy the National Guard to the city.
“His threats are inevitable,” Mamdani said. “This has nothing to do a safety, it has to do with intimidation.”
“If it was safety, President Trump would be threatening to the deploy the National Guard to the top 10 states of crime, eight out of which are all Republican-led,” Mamdani added. “But because of that party he won’t actually be doing it.”
The 34-year-old democratic socialist was propelled to victory amid a record turnout in New York City. More than 2 million voters turned out on Tuesday — the first time a mayoral election crossed that threshold since 1969.
Mamdani will become the city’s youngest mayor since 1892 and the first Muslim to hold the office.
Mamdani also said he saw his election victory as a “mandate” to pursue the “most ambitious” affordability agenda for New Yorkers in decades.
He described the first steps toward funding that agenda as pushing to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers — along with raising corporate taxes to 11.5% from its current level at about 7.25%.
“These things together raise about $9 billion,” he said, “which more than pays for the economic agenda and also starts to Trump-proof our city.”
Mamdani’s proposal for city-funded universal child care is among the policies he said he planned to fund with new tax revenues.
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