Trump attacks Mamdani over rent freeze, calling his agenda a spreading cancer

U.S. President Donald Trump sharply criticized New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani over the city’s rent freeze, saying the policy should not spread beyond New York. He compared the expansion of Mamdani’s approach across the country to "a form of uncontrolled cancer."

Trump said the freeze would cause buildings in New York to "turn into ghettos and slums" and would push more residents to keep leaving the city. He warned that if similar policies spread to additional states, the United States would become "third world."

The remarks focused on Mamdani and on rent control in New York, with Trump portraying the policy as a threat not only to the city’s housing stock but to broader national conditions if copied elsewhere.