Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani railed in opposition to President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” on Wednesday throughout an look within the Bronx, warning of the devastating affect its cuts could have on New Yorkers’ healthcare whereas doubling down on criticism of his rivals and their Trump ties.
The Democratic nominee sounded the alarm on the upcoming lack of federal funding for key packages, similar to Medicaid and SNAP, whereas showing with members of 1199SEIU, the nation’s largest healthcare union, exterior St. Barnabas Hospital in Belmont. The highly effective union endorsed Mamdani in the summertime after backing his rival, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, within the Democratic major.
“This is the kind of a decision, of legislation, that will be felt in more ways than we can count,” Mamdani stated. “It could mean that low-income New Yorkers will not seek out treatment. It could mean that outer-borough hospitals will be deprived of the resources that they so desperately need to provide adequate care. It would mean that hard-working health professionals who are already being asked to do too much while being paid too little will be asked for even more.”
Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks out in opposition to federal cuts as a part of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” with members of the healthcare union 1199 exterior St. Barnabas Hospital within the Bronx on Sept. 24, 2025. (Téa Kvetenadze/NYDN)
The regulation may result in greater than 2 million New Yorkers dropping their present insurance coverage protection — leaving 1.5 million folks uninsured — whereas roughly $8 billion can be reduce yearly from hospitals and healthcare methods statewide. New York Metropolis alone would lose an estimated 32,500 jobs and $7.4 billion in financial exercise.
Elva King is a longtime nurse at St. Barnabas and delegate for 1199. She predicted the “most devastating” affect of the cuts can be widespread layoffs and subsequent short-staffing.
She was significantly involved in regards to the impact on essentially the most susceptible sufferers, similar to these with suicidal ideation.
“Without Medicaid we’re doomed,” King added. “We are overwhelmed, overworked and underpaid. [With the cuts] it will be worse.”
Mamdani stated he’s open to exploring a number of attainable options to assist no less than partially plug the multibillion-dollar gap, similar to facilitating public well being bonds and advocating for the state to focus on indigent-care pool funding.
However he conceded that “the scale of this devastation is one that Washington has to answer for, because the state and the city cannot simply snap their fingers and cover it all.”
Mamdani has lengthy been important of Trump and his “Big Beautiful Bill,” describing it in July as “robbery, plain and simple,” and accusing Trump and congressional Republicans of “trying to pull off one of the biggest heists in U.S. history.”
Members of the healthcare union 1199 hear as mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks out in opposition to federal cuts as a part of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” exterior St. Barnabas Hospital within the Bronx on Sept. 24, 2025. (Téa Kvetenadze/NYDN)
On Wednesday, nonetheless, he stated he’s “always willing to have a conversation with Donald Trump, so long as it is to the benefit of New Yorkers.”
The assemblymember took the chance to criticize not simply the Trump administration however his opponents within the mayor’s race, Cuomo and Mayor Eric Adams, and their comparatively hotter relations with the White Home.
Mamdani referred to Cuomo, his fundamental competitor, as a “clown” who’s “more interested in a favor than in pushing back on the cutting to funding.”
“It’s time that we understand that Andrew Cuomo’s unwillingness to stand up to Donald Trump is not just a red flag, it is a five-alarm fire,” he stated.
Cuomo marketing campaign spokesperson, Wealthy Azzopardi, dismissed Mamdani’s feedback as “preposterous.”
Cuomo has decried Trump’s cuts and concentrating on of migrants, describing the president Sunday as “a threat to every New Yorker.”
In the meantime Mamdani instructed Metropolis Corridor has begun to resemble “an embassy of D.C.” and lambasted Adams’ “abandonment of what it means to be a leader of the city.” He additionally slammed the administration’s latest try to kill the Simply Dwelling housing improvement within the Bronx for ex-inmates whereas praising the Metropolis Council for defending it.
Todd Shapiro, a spokesperson for Adams, stated, partially, “Let’s be clear: Mamdani’s campaign is being fueled by money from outside the city because he’s out of touch with the real struggles New Yorkers face. While cops are being shot and families are working hard to build a future here, Mamdani is busy grandstanding abroad and pushing policies that would legalize prostitution, bankrupt the city, and abandon public safety.”
However Mamdani did give a nod to Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa, who claimed Wednesday he has been supplied cash to give up the race.
“I can tell you that of Andrew Cuomo, Eric Adams and Curtis Sliwa, I trust Curtis Sliwa’s word the most,” he stated. “And I appreciate Curtis Sliwa — even amidst all of our disagreements, all of the vast separation between our policy proposals — that he is someone who cares more about this city than he does about what these billionaires want him to do.”
Mamdani, Adams, Cuomo and Sliwa are set to face off within the common election on Nov. 4.
Initially Printed: September 24, 2025 at 7:00 PM EDT
