US President Donald Trump threatened the Democratic candidate for New York City mayor, Zehran Maumadani, with unprecedented troubles with Washington if he wins the office, warning he would be cut off from federal funding.

Trump wrote on his platform “Truth Social”: “The self-proclaimed communist in New York City, Zehran Maumadani, who is running for mayor, will prove to be one of the best things that happened to our great Republican Party. He will face problems with Washington that no mayor in our great city’s history has known.”

He added, promising to withhold federal funds from Maumadani: “Remember, he needs money from me, as president, to fulfill all his false communist promises. But he will get none of it, so what’s the point of voting for him? This ideology has always failed over thousands of years. It will fail again, guaranteed!”

This attack comes after Maumadani’s surprising victory in the Democratic primary against his main rival, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, receiving 43.5% of the votes compared to Cuomo’s 36.4%, according to preliminary results.

Maumadani (33 years old) was born in Uganda to a family of Indian origin and moved to New York at the age of seven. The city’s ranked-choice voting system is expected to decide the final mayoral election result. If he wins, he will become the first Muslim mayor of New York City.

A recent poll showed that about half of New York residents and two-thirds of young people support his approach, putting him in a strong position ahead of the November 4 election.

Maumadani is known for his anti-Israel stance, having called for stopping US aid to Israel, and recently stated he would divest New York City’s investments in Israeli bonds if elected.

He also declared that if elected, he would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visited New York.