Trump needs to remind Mamdani that Gotham is not above the rest of the country

When President Donald Trump sits down with Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, he needs to remind him that American values — and laws — still hold in Gotham.

Protesting in front of a synagogues — or any house of prayer — and heckling and blocking entry is un-American and illegal, violating others’ rights to freedom of worship, to assembly, to free speech and much more.

Yet the city saw just such an ugly spectacle Wednesday night outside Park East Synagogue: “We need to make them scared,” one agitator kept saying.

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on Air Force One on his way to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. AP

Mamdani’s not yet in charge of the NYPD but he needs to know that the Trump administration won’t let thugs trample on New Yorkers’ civil rights.

Long precedent allows federal troops to protect the civil rights of minorities; Trump should warn the mayor-to-be that he’ll do his duty by his home town if mobs keep assaulting synagogues in Mamdani’s New York.

The president should also stomp on all “follow international law” nonsense: The International Criminal Court has no jurisdiction in America; saying you’ll enforce its warrant for the arrest of Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu is a barely bad joke.

However loud the applause the idea brings at Democratic Socialist confabs, only an idiot would order the NYPD to battle with the federal agents who protect foreign heads of state.

He should be waking up to basic facts such as: Cities are legal creations of their state governments, and the states are subordinate to Washington; mayors just don’t get to make up their own laws.

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani greets supporters after speaking at a press conference on November 20, 2025, in New York City. Getty Images

Does Mamdani love Gotham as he says?

The prez should remind him that running a city isn’t about dorm-room thought experiments: The job is first and foremost about collecting the trash and fighting the rats; teaching the kids and securing the streets and subways — and keeping the town open for business.

Screaming “Tax the rich!” may satisfy the new mayor’s fans, but he’s likely already realizing the risks of losing the 30,000 highest-earning tax filers who already provide the city with 40% of its income-tax revenue.

We expect the face-to-face will also see Mamdani walking back his vows to be Trump’s “worst nightmare”: This city relies on the feds for far too much to make that sustainable.

The mayor-elect — and all New Yorkers — need Trump more than the other way ’round.

Finally, Trump should instruct Mamdani in a fundamental truth of democratic politics: Opponents not only can get along, they have to — or everything falls apart.