Trump reacts to Zohran Mamdani’s victory speech with cryptic message

President Donald Trump appeared to weigh in shortly after New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s impassioned victory speech in Brooklyn on Tuesday night, posting a brief and cryptic message on TruthSocial that quickly caught national attention.

The timing of the president’s post appeared to coincide with the moment Mamdani addressed him directly from the stage. “Hear me, President Trump, when I say this,” Mamdani declared to loud cheers. “To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.”

Trump had been a vocal critic of Mamdani throughout the campaign, calling him a “communist” and warning that New York could lose federal funding under his leadership. In the final days of the race, Trump endorsed former governor Andrew Cuomo in a last-minute bid to stop Mamdani’s rise, a move that failed to sway voters.

Mamdani, who framed his campaign as a rejection of “oligarchy and authoritarianism,” used his victory speech to cast New York as a model for political change. “After all,” he said, “if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him.”

Trump’s TruthSocial post, which read simply, “...AND SO IT BEGINS!”, followed soon after. Though brief, it quickly went viral, sparking speculation about whether it signaled the start of a political standoff between the president and the city’s new mayor.

As Mamdani prepares to take office in less than two months, his early remarks, and Trump’s quick reaction, have set the stage for what could become one of the most closely watched political relationships in the country.