President Donald Trump has stated that Democratic candidate Zohran mamdani must “to do the right thing” should he be elected mayor of New York City, or risk losing federal funding.

“Let’s say this, if he does get in, I’m going to be president and he’s going to have to do the right thing, or they’re not getting any money,” trump told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo during an interview that aired Sunday.

“He’s got to do the right thing,” Trump said.

This isn’t the first instance of trump threatening to cut federal funding to local politicians, notably those in states with Democratic leadership, whose stances he disagrees with.

He’s previously threatened to strip federal funding from California regarding Gov. Gavin Newsom’s policies concerning transgender athletes in women’s sports.

While Trump specifically targeted Mamdani, the 33-year-old who defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the initial round of the city’s democratic mayoral primary the previous week, he also broadened the funding threat to encompass all new York City mayoral candidates.

“I can tell you this,whoever’s mayor of New York is going to have to behave themselves,or the federal government is coming down very tough on them financially,” Trump told Bartiromo.

Trump has consistently labeled Mamdani – a Democratic socialist – as a communist, including during the Fox news’ Sunday Morning Futures interview.

Mamdani has refuted this label.

“I am not and I have already had to start to get used to the fact that the president will talk about how I look, how I sound, where I’m from, who I am,” Mamdani told NBC News’ Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press.”