A grocery billionaire, John Catsimatidis, who was born on the Dodecanese island of Nisyros (7 September, 1948) has said he is willing to spend $100 million on a second attempt to become mayor of New York City.

Mr Catsimatidis has not formerly announced that he will run for mayor but told the New York Post  last week that he told the city’s Republican party leaders in an online conference call that he was willing to put up the money to run for mayor. His daughter, Andrea, is the party chair for Manhattan.

In 2013, he made an unsuccessful bid for the party nomination for mayor of the US’s largest city eventually losing to  Joe Lhota. The Democat Bill de Blasio won the election and has been the mayor since 2014.

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Mr Catsimatidis is the owner of Gristedes Foods which is the largest grocery chain in Manhattan, the Red Apple Group, as we all as an aviation and real estate company. He is also a radio show host on a number of stations along the east coast of the US and owns WABC (AM) radio station.

In his interview he expressed concerns about how quickly the city was “going downhill” and was critical of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I am alarmed at how fast this city went downhill as far as our citizens feeling safe to walk around on the streets. “I get emotional about this and that’s why I want to run because I am emotional about the well-being of our citizens and our city,” he told the New York Post.

“We talk about Black Lives Matter. It’s a great statement, but the people that run it don’t care about black lives, they care about changing America and I don’t want to change America. I love America,” Mr Catsimatidis went on to say.

“I have been on the Police Athletic League Board for 34 years and I care about the inner cities. We help the black kids and the minority kids of the inner city. Black Lives Matter don’t give a damn. They don’t give a shit. I care,” he went on to say.

He said the movement’s leaders were a front for either “(George) Soros-type” or foreign government such as China or Russia, or the Iranians.

A strong pro-Donald Trump supporter he has also expressed support for the building of the wall along the Mexican border.