'And So It Begins!': Trump fires back at NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani after victory speech

'And So It Begins!': Trump fires back at NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani after victory speech

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday hit back at New York City’s newly elected mayor, Zohran Mamdani, after the Democrat used his victory speech to directly challenge the President.

Posting on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “And so it begins!”,  a terse response that came just hours after Mamdani, 34, had addressed him by name during his post-election remarks.

“Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: turn the volume up,” Mamdani had declared to cheering supporters.

The exchange marks the opening round of what could become a heated political showdown between the progressive mayor and the Republican President.

Mamdani, who ran on a democratic socialist platform, has vowed to resist Trump’s immigration policies and what he called his “authoritarian tendencies.” Trump, meanwhile, has previously warned that federal funding for New York City could be cut under Mamdani’s leadership.

Democrats scored major victories in Tuesday’s elections, the first since Trump’s return to office nine months ago, bringing new energy to a party seeking to rebuild momentum ahead of next year’s congressional polls.

“If any city can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it’s the one that gave rise to him,” Mamdani said. “To terrify a despot, you dismantle the conditions that allowed him to gain power. That’s how we stop Trump — and the next one," he added.

Before the vote, Trump had already hinted at possible funding cuts to New York, continuing a pattern of using federal levers to target Democratic strongholds.

Mamdani acknowledged the challenges ahead in implementing what he called “the most ambitious cost-of-living agenda since the 1940s,” including proposals for a rent freeze, universal childcare, and new government oversight of private-sector pricing.