Trump Fires Warning Shot at Andrew Cuomo: Anybody Who Runs Against Me ‘Suffers’

President Donald Trump on Monday dared Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) to challenge him in 2020, warning, “Anybody that runs against Trump suffers.”

The challenge came as President Trump delivered remarks at a fundraising event for Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), who is running for re-election. The Utica visit marked the president’s first since winning the White House to an area he won in 2016. President Trump revealed that Cuomo once called him and promised that he wouldn’t run against him — a claim the New York governor’s office did not immediately dispute. “But maybe he wants to,” the president mused to attendees, adding: “Oh, please do it. Please. Please. He did say that. Maybe he meant it. The one thing we know — and they do say — anybody that runs against Trump suffers. That’s the way it should be.”

President Trump, who flirted with a gubernatorial run before setting his eyes on the White House, argued that New York could have the lowest taxes in the nation if Cuomo had allowed hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the state and claimed Cuomo “wants to take away your Second Amendment.” “It’s very sad to see what’s happened with New York,” he said. “This could have been Boomtown, U.S.A.”

Cuomo’s office did not immediately respond to the criticism, but the New York lawmaker took to Twitter to defend his position on gun rights. “Donald Trump & the NRA – bankrupt bedfellows: literally and morally,” he said. “Unlike Trump, I’m not afraid to take on the NRA.”

Cuomo’s office released a lengthy statement ahead of Trump’s arrival, accusing the president of having “forgotten what made this country great.”

“Despite being a native New Yorker, since you took office, you have attacked our healthcare, passed a tax law that punished New York in order to fund corporate tax cuts, ripped immigrant New Yorkers from their families, launched an assault on our environment, and undermined the basic values on which this state and this nation were built,” the statement reads.

As for Gillibrand, President Trump called her “a puppet” of New York’s other Democratic senator, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “She’s been up to my office looking for campaign contributions. And she’s very aggressive on contributions, but she’s not very aggressive on getting things done,” the president said.

In response to the jab, Gillibrand tweeted: “The President refuses to acknowledge the work I’ve gotten done. Sound familiar, ladies?”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.