Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and one-time personal lawyer to President Trump, has publicly criticized Mayor Zohran Mamdani for planning to attend the 9/11 commemoration at Ground Zero.
Giuliani appeared on Newsmax on Sunday, where he questioned whether Mamdani genuinely acknowledges the nature of the September 11 attacks.
“Frankly, whatever he’d like to say, he doesn’t agree that September 11th was an Islamic terrorist attack on the United States of America,” Giuliani said.
Giuliani, who led New York City through the immediate aftermath of the 2001 attacks, framed his objection as deeply personal, citing his proximity to victims and their families.
“Having lost friends there, and being very close to many of the families, it offends me that he’s coming,” Giuliani added during the interview.
His remarks extended beyond Mamdani specifically, encompassing broad and false generalizations about Muslim people as a whole.
“They have every desire to take us over. This is not, they want to be just another religion, they want to dominate us,” Giuliani said of Muslims, adding, “Mamdani is a clear supporter of that.”
Giuliani is the most prominent voice among a series of conservatives who have called on Mamdani to stay away from the Ground Zero ceremony, a position that has gained traction in certain right-wing circles.
An online petition calling for Mamdani to be excluded from the event has gathered 100,000 signatures, citing the mayor’s support for individuals viewed as “dismissive of American institutions or insufficiently critical of extremist ideologies.”
Mamdani has already responded to the petition publicly and shown no indication that he intends to alter his plans to attend the annual commemoration.
Last week, Mamdani signed two executive orders connected to the September 11 anniversary, one aimed at overhauling the city’s emergency preparedness infrastructure and another establishing the date as a “Citywide Day of Remembrance and Service.”
Critics and civil rights advocates have characterized Giuliani’s comments as rooted in anti-Muslim sentiment and factually unfounded, noting they misrepresent Mamdani’s publicly stated positions.
Mamdani, who is set to attend the ceremony alongside sitting presidents, has not publicly responded to Giuliani’s specific Newsmax remarks as of the time of publication.
