President Trump took aim at Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary during a televised cabinet meeting. Referring to the ranked-choice voting system, he said, “When I see a communist who has actually gotten the Democrat nomination, they also went to that new form of voting, which is a beauty. You go in there in third place, you can come out at first.” His comments framed ranked-choice as a system that elevates candidates without genuine support.

Ranked-choice voting works differently from traditional elections. Instead of choosing just one candidate, voters rank them in order of preference. If no candidate receives over 50% of first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and their votes are redistributed to voters’ next preferences. This process continues until a candidate crosses the majority threshold. The goal is to ensure that the final winner has broad support, even if they weren’t everyone’s first pick.

Despite Trump’s suggestion that Mamdani benefited from a loophole, the actual results show otherwise. Mamdani led in every single round of counting. In the first round, he already held a strong plurality. As votes were redistributed from eliminated candidates, his lead only grew. By the final round, he secured 56% of the vote against former Governor Andrew Cuomo, reflecting not just initial enthusiasm but consolidated support across the electorate.

Mamdani’s quiet response to Trump avoided direct confrontation. Instead, he posted about what mattered most to his campaign: “With the updated RCV totals just released by the Board of Elections, our campaign has officially earned the most total votes in a primary in New York City history.” While ranked-choice does naturally consolidate votes to inflate final totals compared to traditional single-choice elections, his consistent lead in every round shows his victory wasn’t a fluke of the system.

With the updated RCV totals just released by the Board of Elections, our campaign has officially earned the most total votes in a primary in New York City history.

— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) July 8, 2025

By highlighting his record-breaking total votes, Mamdani offered a quiet rebuttal to Trump’s criticism. While he didn’t emphasize the round-by-round results himself, the certified counts showed he led in every stage of the ranked-choice process. His win wasn’t handed to him by a technicality. It was secured through a voting system designed to reveal candidates with the broadest overall support, and in each round, that candidate was Zohran Mamdani.