Trump slams Mamdani’s New York victory: ‘It’s common sense or communism’
The president continued to undermine the results of New York’s mayoral election. He’s yet to reference the new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, by name. But he’s used the historic victory as a way to color the future direction of the Democratic party.
“If you want to see what congressional Democrats wish to do to America, just look at the result of yesterday’s election in New York, where their party installed a communist,” Trump said, inciting a series of boos as a result. “Now the Democrats are so extreme that Miami will soon be the refuge for those fleeing communism in New York.”
He went on to summarize the situation at large: “The decision facing all Americans could not be more clear, we have a choice between communism and common sense.”
Key events
Richard Luscombe
in Miami
Donald Trump’s speech started off with a lengthy self-congratulation for winning his second term of office exactly one year ago today.
“We rescued the economy … we saved our country,” he insisted, before recounting his pre-election photoshoot with a garbage truck, and serving hamburgers in a McDonald’s restaurant.
“This is the golden age of America,” he said, touting a slew of recent trade deals with other nations, and insisting they would net $21 trillion for the US economy in one year. He claimed to have removed 600,000 Americans from food stamp aid, and that two million more of them were working than when he took office.
“Prices are coming down very fast,” he said. “We’re going to have a bigger, better, stronger economy than my first four years.”
Trump slams Mamdani’s New York victory: ‘It’s common sense or communism’
The president continued to undermine the results of New York’s mayoral election. He’s yet to reference the new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, by name. But he’s used the historic victory as a way to color the future direction of the Democratic party.
“If you want to see what congressional Democrats wish to do to America, just look at the result of yesterday’s election in New York, where their party installed a communist,” Trump said, inciting a series of boos as a result. “Now the Democrats are so extreme that Miami will soon be the refuge for those fleeing communism in New York.”
He went on to summarize the situation at large: “The decision facing all Americans could not be more clear, we have a choice between communism and common sense.”
Trump delivers remarks at America Business Forum
The president took the stage in Miami to deliver remarks at the America Business Forum. He’s offered the greatest hits of many of his usual lines: extolling his 2024 win as the most “consequential election victory in American history”, declaring his second administration as the beginning of a “golden age of America” and baselessly claiming the 2020 election was stolen.
He also disparaged the results of the New York mayoral election. “Watch what happens in New York, terrible,” Trump said, not referring to Zohran Mamdani by name. “And I hope it doesn’t happen, but you’re going to see it.”
Johnson also said today that he has spoken with the president about how they can shore up support in the midterm 2026 elections. “If we lose the majority in the House, and this radical element of the Democrat party were able to take over, we’ve already seen that movie. They will try to end the Trump administration,” Johnson said. “He won’t have four years. He’ll have only two because they will move to impeach him, probably on the first day of the new Congress in January 2027, and they will try to systematically unwind all the important reforms that we’ve done for the American people.”
The House speaker also said that Trump is “going to help” as campaign season kicks off. “He’s offered to do rallies and the tele-town halls and all the thing – he’s sent out a huge round of endorsements of incumbents,” he added.
House speaker says Mamdani’s mayoral victory is ‘the biggest win for socialism in US history’
Earlier today, the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, held his daily press conference on the steps of the US Capitol, declaring that Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral victory in New York is “the biggest win for socialism in US history and the biggest loss for the American people”.
Johnson added: “Working families watching this play out have a right to know that socialism and communism are not just confined in New York City, they are quickly coming to a town near you.”
However, he urged those watching to not “read too much” into last night’s results. “There’s no surprises. What happened last night was blue states and blue cities voted blue. We all saw that coming,” the speaker said.
‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’: JD Vance reacts to Democratic election day victories
In response the sweep of Democratic victories on Tuesday, the vice-president took to social media to offer his analysis, noting that “it’s idiotic to overreact to a couple of elections in blue states”, but laying out his thoughts regardless.
“We need to focus on the home front. The president has done a lot that has already paid off in lower interest rates and lower inflation, but we inherited a disaster from Joe Biden and Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Vance wrote.
He added that “infighting” among Republicans “is stupid”.
“I care about immigration and our sovereignty, and I care about establishing peace overseas so our resources can be focused at home. If you care about those things too, let’s work together,” he said.
On the subject of Mamdani, this time last year no one had really heard of him. Now he is the first Muslim, millennial and mayor of South Asian heritage of America’s largest city. For this week’s episode of Politics America Weekly, Jonathan Freedland speaks to reporter Ed Pilkington about Mamdani’s historic win, his challenge to the president, and what the Democrats should take away from a successful night at the ballot box. You can listen here:
Rachel Leingang
I talked with leftwing commentator Hasan Piker on the phone earlier today, fresh off a night of celebrating Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York.
Mamdani’s message can be replicated around the country, Piker said, despite the contention from some that the democratic socialist’s platform would be too radical for other parts of the country.
“This is probably the 700th time saying this, and not just about Zohran in general, not even just last night. This is the message of my entire political advocacy. This is the message of my entire political career as a commentator, as someone who works with organizers and activists,” Piker said.
“Yes, Zohran’s message is universal. It is applicable, and I think as long as you localize it to address the ailments that people feel, the issues that people feel in whatever locality, in whatever state that you are running for, as long as you center working-class struggles and affordability at the heart of your campaign, you will definitely win.”
After a brief rebuttal from Sauer and more than two and a half hours of arguments, Roberts announces, “The case is submitted,” and the hearing concludes.
The next step is a private conference at which the justices will take a preliminary vote on the outcome.
Richard Luscombe
in Miami
Away from the supreme court for a moment, my colleague Richard Luscombe reports that we might hear more of Donald Trump’s thoughts about Tuesday’s election results shortly when he addresses the America Business Forum in Miami.
The president is the headline speaker at the two-day conference, which brings together influencers and leaders from the worlds of politics, business and sports.
According to White House officials, he will focus his remarks on economics, especially a number of trade deals he has taken credit for brokering around the globe. But Trump is known to veer off script, so we’ll be listening for any further commentary about the disappointing night for Republicans.
Earlier today, the conference heard via a video link from Venezuelan opposition leader and democracy activist Maria Corina Machado, the winner last month of the Nobel peace prize that the president had coveted.
Trump’s recent aggressive stance towards Venezuela and its president, Nicolás Maduro, which has included military strikes on multiple alleged drugs trafficking vessels, was “correct”, she said: “[Maduro] is not a legitimate head of state, he is head of a narco-terrorist structure. You need to cut those cash flows and that’s precisely what President Trump is doing to protect millions of lives. Maduro started this war and President Trump is ending that war.”
Other conference speakers include soccer star Lionel Messi; Argentina’s president, Javier Melei; Trump’s Middle East envoy and adviser Steve Witkoff; and the Amazon and Blue Origin founder, Jeff Bezos.
Trump’s address is scheduled for 1pm ET. We’ll bring you anything noteworthy.
Kavanaugh asks why Congress would rationally give the president the power to shut down trade but not to take a less severe step, such as impose even a 1% tariff. He says it creates an “odd doughnut hole in the statute”.
But Benjamin Gutman, Oregon’s solicitor general, says the power to tax is fundamentally different. He says, to laughter:
It’s not a doughnut hole, it’s a different kind of pastry.
Katyal told the court that “we have no problem” with the president executing tariffs under trade acts, but “this president has torn up the entire tariff architecture”.
Pointing specifically to the example of Switzerland, a close US ally, where tariffs are currently 39% (and which, he notes, has a trade surplus with the United States), he said:
That is just not something any president has ever had the power to do in our history.
“There is no citation whatsoever in the government’s brief to any notion that the president has Article II tariff authority,” Katyal said. “In wartime, conquered territory, maybe. But this is not a wartime or conquered territory statute … They are tariffing the entire world in peacetime, and they are doing it asserting a power that no president in our history has ever had.”
Katyal also noted that Congress knows “exactly how to delegate its tariff powers”, and has done so in many instances for 238 years. “It’s done so explicitly, always with real limits. IEEPA looks nothing like those laws,” he said.
As he answered questions from the justices, he pushed back against the government’s characterization that revenue from the president’s tariffs is simply incidental. “Our founders didn’t give the president revenue-raising power, even in a time of war,” Katyal said.
‘Tariffs are taxes’: challenger to Trump’s tariffs speaks to supreme court
Michael Sainato
At the supreme court, Neal Katyal, the attorney arguing for private companies challenging Trump’s tariffs, said: “Tariffs are taxes. They take dollars from Americans pockets and deposit them in the US treasury. Our founders gave that taxing power to Congress alone. Yet here, the president bypassed Congress and imposed one of the largest tax increases in our lifetimes.”
He added:
Many doctrines explain why this is illegal, like the presumption that Congress speaks clearly when it imposes taxes and duties and the major questions doctrine, but it comes down to common sense. It’s simply implausible that in enacting IEEPA, Congress handed the president the power to overhaul the entire tariff system and the American economy in the process, allowing him to set and reset tariffs on any and every product from any and every country at any and all times.
Before the US solicitor general finished taking questions, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson probed him a final time: “What is a little concerning to me is that your argument suggests that we should see the word ‘imposed’, the phrase ‘impose tariffs’… We don’t see that word. Instead, you take ‘regulate’ and say that must mean that.”
Conservative justices also voice doubt on Trump administration’s tariff argument
Michael Sainato
It’s worth noting that even conservative justices sound doubtful of the strength of the Trump administration’s position on the legality of its tariffs. “The vehicle is the imposition of taxes on Americans, and that has always been a core power of Congress,” said Chief Justice John Roberts.
After D John Sauer argued that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, enabled Trump to impose sweeping tariffs, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said: “One problem you have is that presidents since IEEPA have not done this.”
If you’re listening to the arguments, you will have heard the term “major questions doctrine” come up a few times. This is the legal principle that means a federal agency cannot create new, significant economic or political policies unless Congress uses plain language to authorize them.
Because the IEEPA doesn’t include specific terms like “tariffs” or “duties”, justices today have taken issue with the Trump administration’s argument today. Chief Justice Roberts questioned why the solicitor general doesn’t think the doctrine applies in this case.
Justice Gorsuch pushed Sauer even further, warning that the tariffs in this case could be “a one-way ratchet toward the gradual but continual accretion of power in the executive branch and away from the people’s elected representatives”.
Trump administration defends tariffs as ‘regulatory’
Interestingly, Sauer said today that the tariffs “are regulatory”.
“They are not revenue-raising tariffs, the fact that they raise revenue is only incidental,” he added.
Trump, however, has touted the levies as a huge boon for the American economy, including offsetting the national debt, and revitalizing domestic manufacturing.
