If you want to know how worried Republicans are about Zohran Mamdani becoming New York’s next mayor and putting in place popular pro-people policies, look no further than Donald Trump’s social media post from Monday.

Mamdani is heavily favored to win the race. However, after incumbent Eric Adams dropped out of the race this weekend, Republicans and some establishment Democrats see an opening for former New York governor Andrew Cuomo (D), who lost the primary to Mamdani in June.

Trying to boost his cause, Trump clumsily weighed in on the race by pretending that a victory of the Democratic Socialist would be great news for Republicans while simultaneously threatening voters that backing Mamdani would have severe consequences for them.

“Self proclaimed New York City Communist, Zohran Mamdani, who is running for Mayor, will prove to be one of the best things to ever happen to our great Republican Party,” Trump wrote.

It hardly bears mentioning that Mamdani is not a “self-proclaimed communist,” although that is a label that Republicans would love to stick him with.

“No, I am not,” Mamdani said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” after his primary victory when asked about Trump calling him a communist. “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, ultimately, because he wants to distract from what I’m fighting for. And I’m fighting for the very working people that he ran a campaign to empower, that he has since then betrayed.”

Trump, of course, doesn’t at all think that a Mamdani victory would help the GOP.

In fact, it could be disastrous.

Mamdani would be by far the most prominent Democratic Socialist in US history in a position to govern.

While lawmakers like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Ortez (D-NY) are household names, as members of Congress, they don’t have any executive authority. Therefore, it is easy to falsely label them as “socialists” and use that term as a cudgel.

However, that line of attack would become much less effective if Mamdani were to succeed in reducing inequality in New York City by making life more affordable for regular people at the expense of the city’s uber-wealthy.

Trump left little doubt that he would try to do his utmost to ensure that this doesn’t happen.

“He is going to have problems with Washington like no Mayor in the history of our once great City,” Trump added. “Remember, he needs the money from me, as President, in order to fulfill all of his FAKE Communist promises. He won’t be getting any of it, so what’s the point of voting for him?”

That is certainly much closer to the truth than Trump’s awkward attempt at trying reverse psychology.

The president’s post demonstrates how high the stakes are in this race. Even though they don’t have a viable candidate of their own, there is a lot on the line for Republicans.

To them, Mamdani is a real threat.

They are comfortable running against old establishment Democrats who don’t spark any voter enthusiasm and are afraid to champion change.

Mamdani is the opposite of that, which is why this won’t be the last we will hear from Trump and other major Republicans on this race… and every time they weigh in, ask yourself this: “Why are they speaking out against a candidate whose victory is supposedly great for them?”