President Donald Trump may have moved out of New York City, but he has privately discussed whether to intercede in its fractious race for mayor to try to stop Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, according to eight people briefed on the discussions.

In recent weeks, Trump has quizzed a Republican congressman and New York businesspeople about who in the crowded field of candidates, which includes Mayor Eric Adams and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has the best chance of beating Mamdani, the leftist front-runner.

The president has been briefed by Mark Penn, a pollster who has worked for Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Andrew Stein, a former New York City Council president and decades-long friend of Trump, on a range of polling that showed Cuomo could still be competitive as an independent candidate. Both men have pushed Cuomo as the best candidate despite his loss in the Democratic primary, including in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed. One of Penn’s firms did extensive work for a pro-Cuomo super PAC in the primary.

And in a previously undisclosed call in recent weeks, Trump spoke about the race directly with Cuomo, an old associate and foil, according to three people briefed on the call, who were not authorized to discuss it.

The possibility that Trump would somehow involve himself in New York politics could inject a new element of unpredictability into an already fractious contest. It remains far from certain how or if Trump will ultimately make his presence felt. And in recent weeks, some Republicans close to the administration have indicated that the president might simply sit it out.

But donors and allies of Adams and Cuomo have pined for weeks for the president to intervene, arguing that Trump, a lifelong New Yorker with strong views about how the city should be run, could play a role in consolidating the fractured anti-Mamdani vote behind a single opponent. This group strongly opposes Mamdani, a democratic socialist who outflanked Cuomo in the primary with a message about freezing rents and raising taxes on the rich.

Trump “loves New York and he’s worried about New York,” said John Catsimatidis, a billionaire Republican grocery and oil magnate. He said he had urged the president not to rush into any action, though.

“The only thing I’ve said to the president is see you in September,” Catsimatidis said. “In other words, let things sort themselves out.”

It is unclear what precisely Trump and Cuomo discussed, or who initiated the call. Cuomo has publicly denounced Trump, and the Justice Department had opened an investigation into Cuomo after House Republicans accused him of lying to Congress. Their conversation came around the time that the former governor was privately discussing with supporters in New York whether to continue with his campaign, and publicly pushing Adams and other rivals such as the Republican nominee, Curtis Sliwa, to drop out.

White House officials declined multiple requests for comment.

Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, declined to make the former governor available for comment. In a statement, he said that Cuomo and Trump “have not spoken in a while” but did not clarify what “a while” meant.

“As far as I know, they have not discussed the race,” Azzopardi wrote in the statement.

The prevailing view among Republicans is that Mamdani, if elected, would be a useful avatar of the left for the party to campaign against in the 2026 midterms. Some of the president’s own advisers began embracing that approach right after Mamdani’s victory over Cuomo, who had resigned as governor in 2021 amid allegations of sexual harassment. (He denied them.)

But Trump remains uniquely focused on the city, where he was born and raised and built a national persona as a real-estate developer. He still owns substantial property in New York, as do some of his close allies, and he has said publicly that he is concerned about Mamdani’s socialist-influenced politics.

“He loves New York and he loves politics, and when he talks to his friends, he doesn’t ask how the Yankees are doing,” said Stu Loeser, a former aide to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who spent millions of dollars to help Cuomo in the primary.

Loeser, who advises other wealthy New Yorkers who speak to the president, said of Trump, “His views are consistent with a lifelong New Yorker who has become a Florida resident but still reads The New York Post every day.”

Trump is accustomed to holding a viselike grip over Republican primary races. But his power to directly shape a contest in a city where the electorate is heavily Democratic is less certain. One of the most effective tools Trump and his allies have at their disposal — using the influential pro-Trump media to bludgeon their opponents — may not have the same impact in a local New York race, even with Trump having increased his share of the vote in the city in 2024.

Some of those who wish the president would get involved want him to help push out one of the three other challengers — Adams, Cuomo or Sliwa — from the race. As long as all three remain active, the thinking goes, they will split the votes of those who oppose Mamdani, further easing his path to the mayoralty.

Allies of Adams have argued Cuomo should drop out of the race. And Sliwa, who is not allied with Trump despite his party identification, has accused Adams of trying to force him from the race by encouraging the president to appoint Sliwa to a position in Washington. Sliwa, who faces long odds in a Democratic city, has said he has no interest.

Trump has taken steps to at least gather information that could help inform his next moves.

In a meeting at the White House in mid-July, Trump asked Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican from the New York City suburbs, about who would be the strongest candidate in a one-on-one contest with Mamdani, according to a person familiar with the conversation. The person said Trump cast doubt on Sliwa’s chances, said he personally liked Adams and indicated that he had always gotten along with Cuomo.

In the Oval Office days before his meeting with Lawler, Trump met with Stein and Penn.

They showed him Penn’s data arguing that Cuomo would be competitive with Mamdani in a head-to-head race, absent Adams, according to two people briefed on what took place. Reliable public polling on the race has been scarce, though other private polls have suggested Mamdani has a more comfortable lead.

Trump was noncommittal, according to one of the people briefed on the discussion. He told the men that Cuomo would be likely to manage the city better than the other candidates, but that whoever won would ultimately “have to work with” the Trump administration, the person said.

Stein declined comment. Penn also declined comment.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Nicholas Fandos, Jeremy W. Peters, Maggie Haberman and Katherine Rosman/Eric Lee
c. 2025 The New York Times Company