Zohran Mamdani wasted little time after becoming mayor-elect of New York City before addressing the man who threatened to not only defund the city, but also to arrest and deport him if he won.
"Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up," Mamdani, a Democrat, told the Republican president from the stage of his Brooklyn victory party.
He issued a direct challenge to the president. "If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him," he said.
The proclamation was an illustration of how both men have seized on one another as politically advantageous foils as Mamdani has risen from obscure state lawmaker to national Democratic star and as Trump has cast today's Democratic Party as radical and out of touch with everyday voters.
Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a naturalized American citizen after graduating from college, went on to cast himself as the embodiment of the resistance against the president, who has pursued an aggressive, anti-immigrant agenda during his second term.
WATCH | Mamdani says it's his job to deal with Trump: Mamdani says it’s hi
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