Mahmood Mamdani (born April 23, 1946, in Bombay, British India) is a Ugandan anthropologist, political scientist, and one of the most influential post-colonial scholars alive. He’s the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government at Columbia University, where he’s taught since 1999.

WATCH: Zohran Mamdani’s father: “America is the root of all evil in the world”

In the Free Repulic article titled “Mahmood Mamdani Wants to Dismantle America” MtnClimber reported:

Zohran Mamdani’s father Mahmood is a postnationalist who advocates the dissolution of all nation states, which he views as intrinsically violent and unjust.

On a humid June night in Queens, New York, Zohran Mamdani stood beside his mother and father, grinning as supporters chanted his name over and over again. He had just clinched the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City after defeating former New York governor Andrew Cuomo in the primary—the first time a figure from the activist Left has come so close to leading America’s largest city.

For many New Yorkers, Zohran Mamdani’s victory heralded the arrival of a new political generation: unapologetically leftist, impatient with compromise, and ambitious for radical change. His policy platform reads like a catalogue of far-left fever dreams: defunding the police, freezing rents, establishing city-run grocery stores, and pushing a US$30 minimum wage.

Since the primary, Mamdani has shot ahead in the polls for the general election. A Siena Institute survey put him at 44 percent, nineteen points ahead of Andrew Cuomo and nearly doubling Eric Adams’s support. An AARP/Gotham Analytics poll found a similar pattern: Mamdani at 42 percent, Cuomo at 23, with Curtis Sliwa at 17 and Adams sinking into single digits.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Mamdani’s rise is the long shadow of his father’s intellectual project. Mahmood Mamdani is a world-famous antinationalist academic at Columbia University, who argues that every sovereign country is built on exclusion and sustained by domination and violence. He has called for a political future in which every nation state including the United States would be “deconstructed.”

Nationalism is the dominant political form of the modern world. Nation states set the rules for citizenship, command armies, print money, and provide the legal frameworks within which our lives unfold. Yet this has not always been the case, and there is no guarantee that it will always remain so. For that reason alone, it is worth engaging seriously with the case against nationalism—a case that has been pressed by both the Right and the Left.

Mamdani’s argument is that the great tragedies of the twentieth century were not excesses but the logical outcomes of nationalism itself. The Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, the Partition of India, the ethnic cleansing of Bosniaks in the 1990s, and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict—all can be read, he suggests, as moments when the logic of nationhood reached its cruel conclusion: interethnic conflict, persecution, and mass killing.

Even in quieter times, nation-states are in the business of policing identity. Citizens, immigrants, and travellers are classified and stratified; each is assigned different rights, obligations, and degrees of belonging. To Mamdani, this points to a deeper structural flaw. The very form of the nation-state creates insiders and outsiders, security for some and precarity for others. In Neither Settler nor Native (2020), Mamdani argues that the nation state and the creation of minorities are inseparable. His solution is a “post-national” politics of inclusive citizenship, in which belonging would no longer rest on national identity…….SNIP

This article originaly appeared in the Free Republic in 2025

Here’s what Discover the Networks says about Zohran Mamdani the son of Mahmood Mamdani :

Radical Roots: Marxist, Anti-American, Anti-Israel Father

Zohran Kwame Mamdani was born on October 18, 1991, in Kampala, Uganda, the only child of Marxist scholar Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair – both of whom were of Indian descent. Zohran’s middle name was given to him by his father, in honor of Kwame Nkrumah, the first prime minister (1957-1960) and then president (1960-1966) of Ghana. A socialist and Pan-Africanist, Nkrumah in 1962 was awarded the Soviet Union’s International Lenin Peace Prize – an honor given by a Soviet government-appointed panel in recognition of individuals who had “strengthened peace among peoples” by advancing the totalitarian agendas of the Kremlin. In 1963 Nkrumah was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity, which aimed to eliminate colonialism and neo-colonialism from Africa.

Since 1999, Mahmood Mamdani has been employed by Columbia University as a Professor of Government, International Affairs, Anthropology, Middle Eastern Studies, South Asian Studies, and African Studies. He also served as the director of Makerere University’s Institute of Social Research from 2010 to 2022, and as chancellor of Kampala International University in Uganda from 2020 to 2023.

In a 2015 discussion, Mahmood Mamdani recalled how, one night in the 1960s, two FBI agents had barged into his room and questioned him about his political views. “They asked me what did I think of Marx,” said Mamdani. “I had never heard of Marx, never heard of communism. They said Marx believed the money of rich people should be taken away and given to poor people. I said: ‘That sounds great!’”

Mahmood Mamdani is a Shia Muslim who identifies with that faith’s so-called “Twelver” branch, whose belief system is centered on the idea that twelve infallible Imams who descended from the Prophet Muhammad were divinely preordained to wield spiritual authority over humanity. Dr. Michael A. Youssef, founding pastor of the Atlanta-based Church of The Apostles, has written about the theological and practical significance of Twelver Islam as follows:

“Shiites comprise only 10-15 per cent of the Muslim world. Iran, however, has been a Shiite stronghold since 1501….

“Twelver Shiism is centered on the belief in the Twelfth Imam (the Mahdi). According to Twelver belief, there were twelve Imams (rightful successors to Muhammad, all from Ali’s lineage). The twelfth was Muhammad al-Mahdi, who supposedly went into occultation (miraculous hiddenness) as a child in the 9th century. Twelvers believe the Twelfth Imam is still alive and will one day come forth to impose Islamic rule over the world.

“Here’s where Iran’s present-day nuclear doctrines meet Iran’s ancient theological doctrines. Some factions within Iran’s clerical leadership believe that the Mahdi’s return will be hastened by global destruction and war. These radical scholars teach that apocalyptic war is a necessary requirement for the Mahdi to be revealed. In this view, Iran’s struggle against Israel and Western civilization is part of a divine plan for the return of the Mahdi.

“This theological doctrine makes a nuclear-armed Iran unthinkably dangerous. During the Cold War, the logic of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) kept nuclear superpowers from attacking each other, because any nuclear attack would invite annihilation.

“But if Iran’s leaders believe that nuclear war would hasten the return of a long-prophesied messiah-figure, they would actually be highly motivated to start a nuclear war, regardless of the consequences. Iran’s apocalyptic clerics have a powerful incentive to pull the nuclear trigger—the fulfillment of ancient prophecies and the establishment of a global caliphate.”

During a 2022 panel discussion hosted by the Asia Society, Mahmood Mamdani stated that Adolf Hitler had drawn his “inspiration” for the genocide of Jews directly from Abraham Lincoln. “With the Civil War,” said the professor, “Abraham Lincoln generalized the solution of reservations; they herded American Indians into separate territories. For the Nazis, this was the inspiration – Hitler realized … that genocide is doable. It is possible to do genocide, that’s what Hitler realized.”

Characterizing America as the “genesis of what we call settler-colonialism” across the globe, Mahmood Mamdani argued that “nationalism and colonialism” were two faces of the same proverbial coin, and that the goals of the Allied forces during World War II were indistinguishable from those of the Nazis. “The Nazi political project was shared by the Allies,” he said, “and that political project was to turn Germany into a ‘pure’ nation — a ‘pure’ nation rid of its minorities. When the Allies defeated the Nazis and went into Eastern Europe, they began to create ‘pure’ nations. To ethnically cleanse Eastern Europe of Germans – move them back into Germany. One crime doesn’t wipe out another.”

Objecting to the use of the term “suicide bomber” to describe Muslims who blow themselves up with explosive devices in an effort to kill Jewish civilian bystanders in their vicinity, Mahmood Mamdani claims that such murderous operatives are no different from professional “soldier[s] whose objective is to kill.” “Suicide bombing needs to be understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism,” the professor wrote in his 2004 book Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror. “We need to recognize the suicide bomber, first and foremost, as a category of soldier.”

Consistent with his personal anti-Semitic sympathies, Mahmood Mamdani currently sits on the advisory policy council of the Gaza Tribunal — an anti-Israel organization that supports the Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions (BDS) movement, a Hamas-inspired initiative dedicated to financially crippling the state of Israel and making its long-term survival impossible. Further, the Gaza Tribunal accuses Israel’s government of committing “genocide” against Palestinians.

According to a report in which the Washington Free Beacon chronicled Mahmood Mamdani’s academic arguments on an array of topics, Mamdani views Israel as “the logical conclusion of Nazism.”

In June 2025, Fox News reported that Professor Mamdani, while teaching a course titled “Settlers and Natives,” articulated his belief in “the necessity of violence in anticolonial struggle.”

In 2025 as well, Professor Mamdani locked arms with a number of fellow faculty members in an effort to prevent a small group of Jewish students from entering a pro-Palestine, anti-Israel encampment on Columbia University’s campus.

Radical Roots: Anti-Israel Mother

Zohran Mamdani’s mother, Mira Nair, is an Indian-American, Oscar-nominated film director, producer, and writer. Like her husband, she supports the Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions (BDS) movement dedicated to Israel’s permanent dissolution as a Jewish state.

In July 2013, Ms. Nair, citing her opposition to Israel’s alleged mistreatment of Palestinians, declined an invitation to be a “guest of honor” at the Haifa International Film Festival. “I will not be going to Israel at this time,” she said in a statement. “… I will go to Israel when occupation is gone. I will go to Israel when the state does not privilege one religion over another. I will go to Israel when apartheid is over.”

In November 2021, Ms. Nair signed an Artists for Palestine UK petition denouncing Israel for having designated six leading Palestinian nongovernmental organizations – the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al-Haq, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International-Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees — as “terrorist” groups linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a pro-Palestinian, Marxist-Leninist terror group based in Damascus, Syria.

In 2025, Ms. Nair signed onto an open letter exhorting the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to bar Israeli actress Gal Gadot from attending that year’s Academy Awards ceremony. The letter said, in part:

“As Members of the Academy, we are writing to express deep concern over the inclusion of Gal Gadot in any official capacity at this year’s Academy Awards events. Given her vocal and unwavering support for [Israeli] actions that have resulted in gross human rights violations, her presence at an event that seeks to celebrate the art of storytelling, diversity, and humanity would be both inappropriate and deeply offensive to many.

“Gadot has openly and repeatedly expressed her support for Israel’s military actions against Palestinians, a stance that aligns her with a system that has caused immeasurable pain and destruction. This is especially troubling in light of the International Court of Justice’s determination that there is a plausible case for genocide against the Palestinian population. …

“Her public stance in support of a regime accused of war crimes and systematic oppression is not just a political statement—it is a direct endorsement of violence against innocent civilians. …

“We urge you to reconsider the decision to have Gal Gadot present at the Oscars. This is a moment to choose integrity over complicity and to recognize the pain and resilience of all communities fighting for justice and equality. We believe the Academy must take a firm stance against complicity in oppression. …”

Privileged Youth

Zohran Mamdani lived in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, until he was five, at which time he and his parents moved to Cape Town, South Africa, where his father taught African Studies at the University of Cape Town.

Two years later, the Mamdani family immigrated to the United States, settling in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan’s Upper West Side. There, Zohran attended the Bank Street School for Children, a high-priced private institution. (Note: As of early 2025, annual tuition rates at this school ranged from $37,554 per pre-school child, to $68,793 per eighth grader.)

From 2006 to 2010, Zohran Mamdani attended the prestigious Bronx High School of Science. Throughout his youth in New York City, the boy lived in the housing facilities of Columbia University, where his father was employed as a professor.

In 2025, Mamdani reflected upon his youth in an interview with The New York Times, saying: “I would say I had a privileged upbringing. I never had to want for something, and yet I knew that was not in any way the reality for most New Yorkers.”

Self-Identifying as Both “Asian” and “Black”

When Zohran Mamdani applied for admission to Columbia University in 2009, he identified himself on his application forms as both “Asian” and “Black or African American.” When Columbia ultimately decided not to admit him, he enrolled instead at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, in the fall of 2010.

Students for Justice in Palestine

During his years at Bowdoin (2010-2014), Mamdani co-founded the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), an anti-Israel advocacy group that supports the Hamas-inspired BDS movement.

In 2013, Bowdoin’s SJP chapter invited the radical Lebanese-American political science professor As’ad AbuKhalil, to address the student body.

• Nicknamed the “godfather of Middle Eastern terrorism,” AbuKhalil is a BDS leader who openly and proudly acknowledges that the movement’s objective is to permanently destroy the Jewish state.
• In 2019, AbuKhalil said that the Trump administration’s reported desire to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization showed America to be an “arrogant” nation that – in light of the fact that it was “killing more civilians [in Afghanistan] than the Taliban” – “certainly should not have the moral authority to judge and label an organization on the basis of the criteria of terrorism.” “This is very much like the Israelis when they themselves declare their enemies and the people who want to resist their occupation as being terrorists,” he added.
• In 2021, AbuKhalil accused the U.S. of having brought the 9/11 attacks upon itself, saying: “We have to remember that the U.S. basically was hit on 9/11 by forces that were reactionary and fanatic and were raised and armed and sponsored by America and its allies in the Middle East. People forget that 9/11 is a repercussion of the Cold War when the U.S. made its bed, and clearly with the religious fanatics of the Muslim world. This is a time where socialists around the world in Chile, in the Arab world and everywhere were under attack by the U.S. Reactionary forces in support. But there were many earlier 9/11s that the U.S. inflicted on people around the world.”

In 2014, the year Zohran Mamdani graduated from Bowdoin College, the school’s SJP took to Facebook to share an article about Rasmea Odeh and demand “justice” for her. A longtime organizer with the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Odeh famously masterminded a February 1969 PFLP terrorist attack in which two Israeli university students were killed by a bomb blast in a Jerusalem food market. When Odeh stood trial for her role in the bomb plot, she was convicted on all charges and sentenced to spend the rest of her life in an Israeli prison. She was freed in 1979, however, as part of a deal in which she and 77 other Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli jails in exchange for a single Israeli soldier who had been taken hostage in Lebanon. Odeh eventually immigrated to America in 1996 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2005 — falsely and illegally denying, on both occasions, that she had ever previously been convicted of, or incarcerated for, a crime. In 2014 a federal jury in Detroit convicted Odeh of immigration fraud because of those denials and sentenced her to 18 months in prison, prompting Bowdoin’s SJP to call for her exoneration in the name of “justice.”

College Graduate & Early Work Experience

Mamdani graduated from Bowdoin College in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in Africana Studies.

He then spent four months in Seattle as an organizer for the political advocacy group MoveOn, followed by two months working for another advocacy group, TexPIRG, in Texas.

In 2014-2015, Mamdani served 6 months as an organizing trainer with Change Corps, a Colorado-based training facility for aspiring far-left political organizers.

In 2015-2016, he was the music supervisor for Queen of Katwe, a 2016 Hollywood movie directed by his filmmaker mother, Mira Nair.

From 2016-2019, Mamdani pursued a career as a rap music performer. Dubbing himself “Young Cardamom,” he collaborated in 2016 with Ugandan rapper HAB on a musical recording titled Sidda Mukyaalo, which means “No going back to the village” in the Luganda language of the African Great Lakes region. In 2019, Mamdani released a single titled Nani under the moniker “Mr. Cardamom.”

In addition, Mamdani worked for a brief time as a foreclosure-prevention and housing counselor for Chhaya, a nonprofit organization serving low-income South Asian residents of Queens, New York.

Blaming the FBI for Radicalizing American Al-Qaeda Leader

In 2015, Mamdani took to Twitter to allege that the FBI’s post-9/11 surveillance of the late Anwar al-Awlaki — an American imam who thereafter went on to become a leader of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) — was responsible for al-Awlaki’s decision to join AQAP. “Why no proper interrogation of what it means for @FBI to have conducted extensive [surveillance] into #al-Awlaki’s private life?” Mamdani wrote on Twitter. “Why no further discussion of how #al-Awlaki’s knowledge of [surveillance] eventually led to him to #alqaeda?”

But as political analyst John McCormack has pointed out: “[T]he FBI had good reason to investigate al-Awlaki soon after 9/11. In 2000, he ministered to two of the 9/11 hijackers [Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar] at the San Diego mosque where he [al-Awlaki] was an imam, and also after he had relocated to a mosque in northern Virginia in 2001…. The FBI investigations found that al-Awlaki had ‘closed-door meetings’ with the hijackers in California, according to the congressional report on 9/11, and the commission reported that ‘Hazmi eventually showed up at [al-Awlaki’s] mosque in Virginia, an appearance that may not have been coincidental.’”

Democratic Socialist: Bernie Sanders’ Influence

Mamdani began to identify as a “democratic socialist” after the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders, another self-identified democratic socialist, whom he greatly admired. Indeed, according to the British newspaper The Times, Mamdani “usually credits the senator Bernie Sanders as the man who made him a socialist.”

In 2017, Mamdani joined the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the largest socialist organization in the United States. In its relentless quest to “end capitalist exploitation,” DSA calls for: abolishing all prisons; defunding all police forces; passing reparations legislation on behalf of black Americans; creating “social ownership of all major industry and infrastructure”; providing free college for all; canceling all student-loan debt; permitting access to taxpayer-funded abortion services for all; enacting a government-run, single-payer Medicare-for-All healthcare system; “combat[ing] the massive carbon footprint of the U.S. military-industrial complex by struggling to dismantle U.S. empire”; closing all U.S. foreign military bases; paying “reparations” to other nations “for the human and environmental destruction caused by U.S. corporations”; guaranteeing access to “public housing for all”; opening America’s borders to all comers; and ending all immigrant detentions, deportations, and enforcement actions.

Shia Muslim / “Twelver”

Mamdani is a Shia Muslim who identifies with that faith’s so-called “Twelver” branch,[1] whose belief system is centered on the idea that twelve infallible Imams who descended from the Prophet Muhammad were divinely preordained to wield spiritual authority over humanity. Dr. Michael A. Youssef, founding pastor of the Atlanta-based Church of The Apostles, has written about the theological and practical significance of Twelver Islam as follows:

“Shiites comprise only 10-15 per cent of the Muslim world. Iran, however, has been a Shiite stronghold since 1501….

“Twelver Shiism is centered on the belief in the Twelfth Imam (the Mahdi). According to Twelver belief, there were twelve Imams (rightful successors to Muhammad, all from Ali’s lineage). The twelfth was Muhammad al-Mahdi, who supposedly went into occultation (miraculous hiddenness) as a child in the 9th century. Twelvers believe the Twelfth Imam is still alive and will one day come forth to impose Islamic rule over the world.

“Here’s where Iran’s present-day nuclear doctrines meet Iran’s ancient theological doctrines. Some factions within Iran’s clerical leadership believe that the Mahdi’s return will be hastened by global destruction and war. These radical scholars teach that apocalyptic war is a necessary requirement for the Mahdi to be revealed. In this view, Iran’s struggle against Israel and Western civilization is part of a divine plan for the return of the Mahdi.

“This theological doctrine makes a nuclear-armed Iran unthinkably dangerous. During the Cold War, the logic of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) kept nuclear superpowers from attacking each other, because any nuclear attack would invite annihilation.

“But if Iran’s leaders believe that nuclear war would hasten the return of a long-prophesied messiah-figure, they would actually be highly motivated to start a nuclear war, regardless of the consequences. Iran’s apocalyptic clerics have a powerful incentive to pull the nuclear trigger—the fulfillment of ancient prophecies and the establishment of a global caliphate.”

Naturalized American Citizen

Mamdani was naturalized as an American citizen in 2018, becoming a dual citizen of both the United States and Uganda.

Entering the World of Politics

Mamdani first became involved in New York City politics in 2015 when he volunteered for Ali Namji, a local defense attorney who ran – unsuccessfully — in a special election for New York’s 23rd District seat in the City Council. Namji’s official online profile says: “Mr. Najmi has defended many individuals charged with very serious crimes in New York City. He has had success defending high level felonies and misdemeanors and providing his clients with a second chance.”

In 2017, Mamdani worked for the failed campaign of yet another New York City Council candidate, Khader El-Yateem — a Palestinian-American community organizer and Democratic Socialists of America member. In August 2017, El-Yateem helped pressure the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island to remove a plaque commemorating Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a Fort Hamilton cemetery.

In 2018, Mamdani managed the New York State Senate campaign of leftwing columnist/reporter Ross Barkan. Over the years, Barkan had contributed to such publications as the Village Voice, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Nation, the Daily Beast, the Columbia Journalism Review, Jacobin magazine, and the New York Observer. After having written for the Observer from 2013 to 2016, he resigned from the newspaper upon learning that it was endorsing presidential hopeful Donald Trump in the Republican primary. Barkan later told the press that with the Trump endorsement, “a line had been crossed and I thought it was time for myself to depart.”

In 2019, Mamdani was a field organizer for attorney and fellow democratic socialist Tiffany Cabán‘s campaign for Queens County District Attorney.

Supporting BLM & Making an Obscene Gesture at a Christopher Columbus Statue

During the weeks of nationwide protests and riots that erupted in the aftermath of George Floyd’s infamous May 2020 death in Minneapolis, Mamdani – in solidarity with the many Black Lives Matter activists from coast to coast who were demanding the removal of statues depicting historical figures whom they smeared as racist oppressors – used his social media platform to post a photo of himself raising a middle finger to a statue of Christopher Columbus with the caption: “Take it down.” Just days before Mamdani issued his post, rioters had toppled a Columbus statue in Richmond, Virginia; beheaded another Columbus statue in Boston, Massachusetts; and torn down yet another outside the state capitol building in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Elected to NYS Assembly

Mamdani was elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020, defeating four-term incumbent Aravella Simotas in a Democratic Party primary before running unopposed in the general election.

Marxist Dogma / “Unapologetic about Our Socialism” / “Seizing the Means of Production”

On May 27, 2020, Mamdani tweeted: “Each according to their need, each according to their ability.” That phrase derives from the slogan that Karl Marx famously popularized in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Programme: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” It articulates the idea that in a communist society as Marx envisioned it, individuals would contribute to the collective based on their talents and capacities, and would receive resources from the collective based on their requirements and limitations. 

In December 2020, Mamdani tweeted that Arya Rajendran — the 21-year-old Communist mayor of the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation, which administrates the Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram — would be precisely the “kind of mayor” that the people of New York City “need right now.”

While appearing virtually at a February 2021 Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) conference aimed at mobilizing young people to become politically active, Assemblyman Mamdani said: “What the purpose is about this entire project — it’s not simply to raise class consciousness, but to win socialism. And obviously, raising class consciousness is a critical part of that, but making sure that we have candidates that both understand that and are willing to put that forward at every which moment that they have … We have to continue to elect more socialists, and we have to ensure that we are unapologetic about our socialism.” In that same speech, Mamdani:

• announced that “I sincerely believe in this political project; I sincerely believe in socialism”;
• referred to his fellow socialists as “comrades”;
• stated that he wished to “run a campaign … built around raising class consciousness” against the evils of “capitalism”;
• declared that “it is socialism that we are fighting for”;
• lauded the anti-Semitic “Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions” (BDS) movement; and
• cited “the end goal of seizing the means of production.” (Note: The term “means of production,” a cornerstone of Marxist dogma, refers to the physical, non-human elements that are used to produce goods and services. These elements include such things as land, factories, machinery, tools, and raw materials. Mamdani further stated that the ascendancy of socialism would facilitate the advancement of desirable policies like “sex work being decriminalized.”)

Re-Elected as an Open Socialist in 2022 & 2024

Mamdani was re-elected to the New York State Assembly in 2022, without opposition in the general election. On his campaign website, he stated: “This election isn’t about a single candidate — it’s about a movement. As a democratic socialist, I know that we’ll never win the rights we all deserve — rights to healthcare, housing, education, nutrition, childcare, and public power — without a grassroots movement of the working class rising up to demand them. Another world is possible, but only if we fight for it together.”

Two years later, Mamdani again won re-election without opposition from any other candidate.

Video Parody Mocking Jews

During the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah’s “Festival of Lights” celebration in 2024, Mamdani posted on social media a video titled “Hey Hannukah,” from the 2015 parody album Punjabi Christmas Album Hits by the so-called Geeta Brothers — a creation of Sikh-Canadian comedian and musician Jus Reign. The video showed two Indian men wearing exaggerated wigs and dancing to Punjabi music in front of a menorah, lighting the menorah, and spinning dreidels. In response to Mamdani’s decision to post the video, the Jewish advocacy group StopAntisemitism wrote on X: “Our holidays and traditions are sacred and not for your comedic pleasure @ZohranKMamdani — this is sick.”

Marriage

Mamdani eloped with American animator, illustrator, and ceramic artist Rama Duwaji in a private ceremony at New York City Hall in February 2025. In July 2025, the couple traveled to Uganda to celebrate their marriage yet again with what the New York Post described as “a lavish, three-day affair at his family’s ritzy, secluded Ugandan compound — complete with masked security guards and a cellphone jamming system.” Some additional excerpts from the Post report:

• “The gates of the bustling, private compound, which sits in the wealthy Buziga Hill area outside the capital city of Kampala, were heavily guarded by military-style, masked men.”
• “The neighborhood is home to some of Uganda’s richest, including billionaire businessman Godfrey Kirumira, a city tycoon with stakes in real estate, tourism, petroleum and infrastructure, and houses neighboring the Mamdanis easily fetch more than $1 million.”
• “The home is set back from the road and sits on two acres of lush gardens surrounded by trees, has breathtaking, panoramic view of Lake Victoria, and features at least three security gates.”

Parents’ Home in Uganda Is Used as a Lucrative B&B, Though Mamdani Is a Critic of B&Bs

The aforementioned Ugandan property where Mamdani and his bride celebrated their marriage in July 2025 — a five-bedroom, four-bathroom villa owned by Mamdani’s parents — was rented out as a Bed-&-Breakfast (AirB&B) resort on a regular basis, commonly bringing in more than $300 per night from renters. Indeed, the parents had already been renting it out as such for nearly a decade.

Mamdani himself, however, had established a reputation as a longtime critic of Air B&Bs. On January 23, 2025, for example, he had posted on X that “in the midst of a historic housing crisis, I strongly oppose Airbnb’s legislation to turn thousands of homes into short-term tourist rentals.” His remark was made in response to pending New York City Council legislation that sought to waive one- and two-family homes from a crackdown that the City had placed on the B&B industry in 2023.

Wealthy Son of Wealthy Parents, Living in a Rent-Stabilized Apartment

In August 2025, Hugh Fitzgerald wrote in FrontPage Magazine: “Zohran Mamdani is the son of millionaire [actually. multi-millionaire] parents. His mother, Mira Nair, is well-known movie director. His father is Mahmood Mamdani, is a Columbia University professor. His parents own property in New York City, as well as in a sprawling family compound in Buziga Hill, Kampala, the poshest neighborhood in all of Uganda, where their neighbors include one of Uganda’s richest men, the near-billionaire Godfrey Kirumira.”

Notwithstanding his professed embrace of the Marxist maxim, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” Zohran Mamdani, at the time of Fitzgerald’s writing, was living in a rent-stabilized, $2,300-per-month apartment in Astoria, Queens, where he had begun residing prior to his 2020 election as a New York State Assembly member earning $142,000 per year. He and his wife together had a combined anual income of more than $200,000. (Note: As of August 2025, the average market-rate rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Queens was $4,216 per month.)

NYC Mayoral Campaign (2025)

On October 23, 2024, Mamdani announced his candidacy for the 2025 mayoral race in New York City. Following is an overview of his positions on a number of key issues related to that campaign:

Anti-Capitalism, Pro-Communism

In a June 2025 interview with CNN anchor Erin Burnett, Mamdani was asked: “Do you like capitalism?” He replied: “No, I have many critiques of capitalism. And I think ultimately the definition, for me, of why I call myself a democratic socialist is the words of Dr. [Martin Luther] King decades ago. He said, ‘call it democracy or call it democratic socialism, there must be a better distribution of wealth for all of God’s children in this country.’ And that’s what I’m focused on, is dignity, and taking on income inequality.”

On July 17, 2025, Fox News posted a newly resurfaced video in which Mamdani had spoken favorably about the “abolition of private property.” Said Mamdani in the clip: “My platform is that every single person should have housing, and I think, faced with these two options, the system has hundreds of thousands of people unhoused, right? For what? And if there was any system that could guarantee each person housing, whether you call it the abolition of private property or you call it, you know, just a statewide housing guarantee, it is preferable to what is going on right now.” (Note: In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels famously wrote: “[T]he theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.”)

In a June 29, 2025 interview on NBC News, Mamdani said: “I don’t think that we should have billionaires, because frankly it is so much money in a moment of such inequality. And ultimately what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country.”

In July 2025, Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow Mike Gonzalez wrote the following about Mamdani:

“Appearing on Meet the Press on June 29, Mamdani was asked if he was a communist, and he answered with his patented smile, ‘No, I’m not.’ Unfortunately for him, there is a record of Fidel Castro also appearing on the same show in 1959 and also insisting, ‘I am not a communist.’  I’ve seen this movie before, and it is a horror show. As a 12-year-old boy, I made it to Europe with my mother and sister, after having spent my young life in communist Cuba, where all the stores were state-owned. The thing that struck me first [in Europe] was that I finally realized why stores had shelves—to carry goods. Shelves were stocked with cans, sacks of flour, sugar, pickle jars, rice, etc. I had never seen that, ever, in Castro’s Caribbean paradise.”

Housing

Freeze the Rent:
Mamdani pledged that if he were to be elected mayor, he would “immediately freeze the rent for all [rent-]stabilized tenants” in New York City.

Build Affordable Housing:
Mamdani vowed to “put our public dollars to work and triple the City’s production of permanently affordable, union-built, rent-stabilized homes – constructing 200,000 new units over the next 10 years.”

De-Commodify Housing:
In a 2021 instructional video titled “How Socialists Solved the Housing Crisis” — which was posted to YouTube by the leftwing Gravel Institute — Mamdani explained that New York City’s housing shortage could be solved by transforming housing from a private commodity into a public one:

• “Why do so many people end up homeless?” he asked in the video. “It’s not because there aren’t enough homes to go around, there are plenty of empty homes. No. It’s because housing people is not a primary goal of developers or landlords. Their goal, simply put, is to make a profit. And it’s much more profitable to build luxury homes for the rich, than decent homes for the poor. This gives us a big shortage of homes for ordinary working people…. This is a terrible way to organize a housing market.”
• “At the root of all of this suffering,” Mamdani elaborated, “is the fact that in this country, housing is treated as a commodity, not a right. It’s a consumer product, just like clothes or cars, that private businesses can sell on the market to make a profit.” Arguing that “housing doesn’t have to be seen as a market at all” – but rather as “a fundamental right, like education or healthcare” – he called for “the government” to “fully commit to a new era of social housing,” and “to guarantee [that] everyone has a home and the market plays a much smaller role in the construction and distribution of housing.”
• “[W]e’ll have to go beyond the market,” added Mamdani. “We can establish community land trusts to gradually buy up housing on the private market and convert it to community ownership. We can give tenants a right of first refusal to buy out their landlords when buildings go up for sale, and we can fully commit to a new era of social housing — ending subsidies for luxury housing development, and using our wealth to build beautiful, high-quality social housing projects that offer good homes and strong communities to everyone. We won’t de-commodify housing overnight, but we know what we have to do, and we have history to guide us. And we know how we’ll get there. Through a movement of the multi-racial working class organizing for the better world we know is possible.” (Note: The unity of the working class is an articulation of classical Marxist thought. As Marx himself famously wrote in his Communist Manifesto: “Workers of the world, unite!”)
• “If we want to end the housing crisis,” Mamdani summarized, “the solution has to be moving toward the full de-commodification of housing. In other words, moving away from the status quo in which most people access housing by purchasing it on the market, and toward a future where we guarantee high quality housing to all as a human right.”
• On December 3, 2020, Mamdani wrote: “People often ask what socialists mean when we say we want to ‘decommodify’ housing. Basically, we want to move away from a situation where most people access housing by purchasing it on the market & toward a situation where the state guarantees high-quality housing to all.”

Property Tax Hikes on the “Richer and Whiter”

Mamdani complained that as a result of New York’s “arcane” and “inequitable” property tax system, “the city’s wealthiest pockets pay just a fraction of their just tax bill because assessed values are artificially capped to stay low while actual market values soar.” The solution, he said, would be to “shift the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods.”

Criminal Justice

Department of Community Safety:
Claiming that policing and incarceration do not promote safe neighborhoods nearly as effectively as “dignified work, economic stability, and well-resourced neighborhoods,” Mamdani said that, as mayor, he would create a “Department of Community Safety” (DCS). Funded by a $1.1 billion budget, this department’s mission, he explained, “will be to prevent violence before it happens by taking a public health approach to safety” – e.g., “investing in citywide mental health education and services” as well as enhanced social welfare benefits — rather than pursuing a punishment-focused, carceral approach. “Police have a critical role to play,” said Mamdani’s mayoral campaign website. “But right now, we’re relying on them to deal with our frayed social safety net — which prevents them from doing their actual jobs.”

Disparaging Police Officers:
During an appearance on a July 2020 podcast, Mamdani said: “Police do not create safety. For many, many people across this city and this state, police actually create and amplify violence…. You just look at the history of the NYPD, and you see that we have invested in a system that functions in many ways to punish poor black and brown people across this city and across this state — frankly, across this country. And there are so many responsibilities we have given to police that, frankly, should have nothing to do with their departments…. [I]f somebody is jaywalking, if somebody is … going through domestic violence — there are so many different, different situations that would be far better handled by people trained to deal with those specific situations, as opposed to an individual with a gun.”

Defunding the Police & Prisons:

On June 5, 2020 — eleven days after the May 25 death of George Floyd following his physical altercation with a Minneapolis police officer — Mamdani posted on Twitter: “Two cops knocked a harmless old man to the ground and let him bleed out on the pavement. All that’s happened to them is a suspension without pay — and their colleagues think even that’s too much. There’s no reforming this system. Defund the police.”

On June 8, 2020, Mamdani tweeted that reforming America’s police departments would be insufficient. Rather, he said: “We want to defund the police.”

On June 28, 2020, Mamdani posted on Twitter: “We don’t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti‑queer & a major threat to public safety. What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD. But your compromise uses budget tricks to keep as many cops as possible on the beat. NO to fake cuts – defund the police.”

On July 3, 2020, Mamdani posted on Twitter: “We need a socialist city council to defund the police.”

On November 6, 2020, Mamdani tweeted that “queer liberation means defund the police.”

In a November 7, 2020 Twitter post, Mamdani wrote “Nature is healing” in response to another Twitter user’s post that mocked a police officer who allegedly had been spotted crying inside his car.

On December 7, 2020, Mamdani wrote on Twitter: “In the last budget, the City Council tried to make the NYPD reduce its overtime budget by half. They simply refused. There is no negotiating with an institution this wicked & corrupt. Defund it. Dismantle it. End the cycle of violence.”

In 2020 as well, Mamdani called for the wholesale dismantling of America’s prison system, writing: “As socialists, we believe people should not have to endure violence & coercion of a criminal-legal system that props up the exploitation of the market by surveilling, caging & killing those fighting to survive under capitalism. We can abolish that system.” Money that theretofore had been allocated to prison construction and other forms of punishment, he said, should be redirected to fund social welfare programs benefiting nonwhite communities “that have been impacted by mass incarceration.”

In a June 5, 2021 interview with SAAG interactive, Mamdani again promoted the defunding of the NYPD while condemning the department for allegedly investing in “apartheid” by working with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Said Mamdani: “When I think of partnerships, I think of how the NYPD and the IDF have had a relationship for many years. A relationship that has meant tactics of oppression crossing from one country to the other, and that has meant an increased surveillance and oppression of marginalized people wherever they may be.”

Mamdani again doubled down on these positions when he said in 2021: “Our prison system relies on dehumanization and brutality, so the goal must be to abolish this exploitative system entirely. We must #DecarcerateNow.”

In his 2025 mayoral campaign, Mamdani called for the abolition of the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group (SRG), which was formed in 2015 to prevent violence and chaos at public protest sites. As he wrote in an X post on December 19, 2024: “As Mayor, I will disband the SRG, which has cost taxpayers millions in lawsuit settlements + brutalized countless New Yorkers exercising their first amendment rights.”

City-Owned Grocery Stores

In July 2025, Yale University Professor Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld and two co-authors wrote in Time magazine: “Mamdani blames grocery stores for running up food costs when in reality, grocery stores are some of the lowest-margin businesses around, with 1-2% profit margins in good times.” To address those stores’ purported price gouging, Mamdani pledged to “create a network of city-owned grocery stores focused on keeping prices low, not making a profit.” Said his 2025 mayoral campaign: “Without having to pay rent or property taxes, [these stores] will reduce overhead and pass on savings to shoppers. They will buy and sell at wholesale prices, centralize warehousing and distribution, and partner with local neighborhoods on products and sourcing. … [We] should redirect public money to a real ‘public option.’” The key to these stores’ success, Mamdani said in a June 2025 campaign video, would be to “operate without a profit motive.”

In a penetrating analysis of the motivations underlying Mamdani’s city-owned groceries idea, City Journal‘s Seth Barron wrote in August 2026:

“’Food stamps,’ now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), are a means-tested [federal] system of giving money directly to consumers in the form of a debit card that can be used only to buy groceries. […] The federal government also funds the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) supplemental nutrition program, which allocates food to expectant and nursing mothers and their children up to age five. […]

“Despite all its experimenting with solutions to poverty and hunger, the federal government never appears to have considered going into the retail grocery business. […] Given that a network of grocery stores already exists, our social-welfare planners must have concluded that they should give consumers themselves either chits or cash to buy the food they need from their local supermarket. They did not see the need to build a parallel, competitive system. […]

“Why, then, did the Mamdani administration overlook the obvious solution to the unaffordability of food—namely, to issue coupons to supplement SNAP benefits—and choose instead to build a complicated, expensive new system, one mandated to undercut existing taxpaying businesses? It seems preposterous, in fact, for the mayor to wage war against neighborhood enterprises while he simultaneously promises to help small businesses thrive.

“This is where knowing something about the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), of which Mamdani is a member, comes in handy. One of the DSA’s precepts is that it is odious for anyone to profit from the needs of another. ‘We demand a complete decommodification of the systems that determine our health and well-being,’ say party theorists, and that includes housing, health care, education, and, presumably, food.

“This helps explain the emergence of the city-owned grocery stores, which is not, in fact, intended to help consumers but to bankrupt the small local bodegas and groceries that—unlike major national chains—would find it impossible to match the deep discounts on staples that Mamdani has promised. Rolling out just five stores, as critics have noted, is not going to help many people. But the point of the project is to establish proof-of-concept that government can create an alternative model of heavily subsidized state stores that will drive privately operated retailers out of business.

“Mamdani has said exactly this. ‘I look forward to the competition,’ he announced in April [2026]. ‘May the most affordable grocery store win!’ In the context of business, ‘winning’ means bankrupting your rivals. […] But if a store has no concern about the bottom line because it is backstopped by the government, that’s hardly an example of a free, competitive market. ‘Affordable’ in Mamdani’s sense of the term is just a euphemism for ‘subsidized.’ If government’s power to tax is also the power to destroy, the same can be said of its power to spend, as some local groceries are likely soon to learn.”

LGBTQIA+ Issues

Lamenting that “queer and trans people across the United States are facing an increasingly hostile political environment,” Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral campaign website declared that “New York City must be a refuge for LGBTQIA+ people” – particularly in light of “[President] Trump’s assault on trans rights.” “The Mamdani administration,” added the website, “will protect LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers by expanding and protecting gender-affirming care citywide; making NYC an LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city; [and] creating the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs.”

Also on his campaign website, Mamdani pledged to “inves[t] $65 million in public providers to provide gender-affirming care to New Yorkers who seek it.” Such “care” would include procedures like breast removal, genital mutilation and removal, penis construction, chemical sterilization, facial feminization and masculinization, hormone treatments, and the administration of puberty blockers.

Moreover, Mamdani promised to: (a) invest millions of dollars into programs like “gender-affirming” telehealth services; (b) “investigate and hold public hearings on hospitals that deny trans youth their rightful healthcare and hold them accountable to the law”; and (c) protect “healthcare providers from legal persecution for receiving or providing gender-affirming and reproductive care.”

Single-Payer Healthcare & Abortion Rights

Mamdani was a vocal advocate for the New York Health Act, calling for the establishment of a single-payer, government-run healthcare system in New York State.

He also pledged to “create a new corps of outreach workers” to “connect every New Yorker in need of reproductive care to affordable, quality support.” Those workers, said Mamdani, “will support patients in understanding the public resources available to them: how to find insurance, apply to programs, access financial assistance, and claim their health benefits.”

Gun Bans & Restrictions

On May 24, 2022, Mamdani tweeted: “We need to ban all guns.”

That same year, he voted in support of requiring a license to possess a semiautomatic rifle.

According to VoteSmart.org, Mamdani as a New York State Assembly member voted in favor of: (a) requiring anyone applying for handgun licenses to disclose the contents of their social media accounts (2022); (b) expanding the circumstances under which “red flag laws” could be used to allow family members or law enforcement to petition a court to temporarily restrict certain people’s access to a firearm if they are deemed a danger to themselves or others (2022); (c) outlawing the purchase of bullet-proof vests by civilians (2022); (d) requiring federal firearms licensees to post warning signs in their stores about the dangers posed by guns (2024); and (e) placing new restrictions on the marketing of guns (2024).

In July 2025, Mamdani — in the aftermath of an incident where a gunman had used weapons he purchased in Nevada to shoot and kill four people in Manhattan — echoed New York State Governor Kathy Hochul’s recent calls for a nationwide ban on “assault weapons.” Said Mamdani: “We are reminded that no matter how strong our gun laws are in this state, we are only as safe as the weakest laws in this nation. And so, at this moment the onus is on all of us … to put forward a vision of stronger gun laws. And I echo the call from Governor Hochul for a nationwide ban on assault rifles…. As mayor, I will lead calls to ensure that we pass the legislation necessary beyond New York, such that every New Yorker can rest assured that we need not prepare for the next iteration of this horrific mass shooting.”

Israel & the Middle East

Supporter of Boycotts during His College Years:
Mamdani’s animus toward Israel dates back many years. During his senior year at Bowdoin College — where he co-founded the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter — he endorsed the American Studies Association’s boycott of Israeli academic institutions. “Israeli universities are both actively and passively complicit in the crimes of both the Israeli military and the Israeli government in all its settler-colonial forms,” Mamdani wrote in an op-ed in Bowdoin’s student newspaper. “Israeli universities give priority admission to soldiers, discriminate against Palestinian students, and have developed remote-controlled bulldozers for the Israeli Army’s home demolitions.” Further, Mamdani called on Bowdoin to join the Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions (BDS) movement and thereby “put pressure on Israeli institutions to end the oppressive occupation and racist policies within both Israel and occupied Palestine.”

Praising the “Holy Land Five”:
In 2017, Mamdani released a rap song titled “Salam,” in which he praised the so-called “Holy Land Five” — leaders of the now-defunct Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a pseudo-charity that was in fact a terrorist ally of Hamas. Among the song’s lyrics were these: “My love to the Holy Land Five. You better look ’em up.”

Claiming That the Palestinian Jihad Brought Him to Socialism:

In 2021, Mamdani said: “I sincerely believe in this political project. I sincerely believe in socialism. For me, it was Palestine that brought me into this movement.”

Supporting BDS:
Mamdani, like his father, is a longtime supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, a Hamas-inspired initiative dedicated to financially crippling the state of Israel and making its long-term survival impossible. During a 2021 interview with the Muslim Democratic Club of New York, Mamdani exhorted leftwing activists to demand that local political candidates be transparent about their stance on BDS. “Speaking up for Israel comes with everything you might want, and we need to show that it’s not that way anymore,” he said. “There are consequences for speaking up in favor of apartheid.”

“My support for BDS is consistent with the core of my politics, which is nonviolence, and I think that it is a legitimate movement when you are seeking to find compliance with international law,” Mamdani said at a May 2025 forum at the UJA-Federation of New York.

“Not on Our Dime!”:
In May 2023, Mamdani was the lead sponsor of a bill called the “Not on Our Dime!: Ending New York Funding of Israeli Settler Violence Act,” which aimed to “prohibit not-for-profit corporations from engaging in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity” in the so-called West Bank – i.e., Judea and Samaria. As Mamdani wrote in an email to the Forward at that time: “Charities should not fund war crimes — it’s that simple. The stated U.S. foreign policy is that settlements are illegal — this bill seeks to bring New York state policy in line with that goal.”

A later iteration of the “Not on Our Dime” bill also prohibited donations to groups that supported alleged Israeli “fundraising for war crimes in both the West Bank and Gaza.” To promote this legislation, NotOnOurDime.com wrote in May 2024:

“The ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza has spurred a proliferation of US-based ‘charitable’ organizations fundraising to support the Israeli military and violent settlers.

“New York-registered organizations are at the heart of this, sending tens of millions of dollars to fund war crimes waged by Israeli military units devastating Gaza and emboldened settlers expelling Palestinians from their homes.

“By allowing these groups to masquerade as charities, New York State is subsidizing Israel’s illegal settlement expansion and state violence against Palestinians.

“It’s more urgent than ever to stop this flow of money, which is why we launched the Not On Our Dime! Campaign.

“We first introduced this bill in May of 2023, which was the most violent year on record for Palestinians in the West Bank, with an exclusive focus on prohibiting NY charities from funding Israeli settler violence.

“In May 2024 – one year later – we are expanding the bill’s scope in light of the surge in NY-based charitable organizations fundraising to support the Israeli military, which both domestic and international courts as well as legal experts have said is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza….

“Join us in uplifting the Not on Our Dime!: End NY Funding of Israeli War Crimes campaign to ensure not another dollar is spent on subsidizing Israel’s illegal settlement expansion and state violence against Palestinians.”

Linking Alleged Israeli Abuses to the Alleged Evils of the NYPD & American Capitalism:

At a September 2023 public speaking event in New York City, Mamdani said: “We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]. We are in a country where those connections abound. Especially in New York City, you have so many opportunities to make clear the ways in which that struggle over there [in Israel] is tied to capitalist interests over here.”

Accusing Israel of “Genocide” & Demanding a Ceasefire:
Shortly after the Gaza-based terror group Hamas carried out a massive surprise attack that killed some 1,200 innocent Israelis on October 7, 2023 – prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare war against Hamas — Mamdani issued a statement that promoted moral equivalence, condemned Israeli political leadership, and made no mention of Hamas: “I mourn the hundreds of people killed across Israel and Palestine in the last 36 hours. Netanyahu’s declaration of war, the Israeli government’s decision to cut electricity to Gaza, and Knesset members calling for another Nakba will undoubtedly lead to more violence and suffering in the days and weeks to come. The path to a just and lasting peace can only begin by ending the occupation and dismantling apartheid.”

That same day, Students for Justice in Palestine, the national organization whose campus chapter Mamdani had founded at Bowdoin College during his student days, exhorted its various chapters to celebrate the “historic win for the Palestinian resistance.”

On October 13, 2023, Mamdani was arrested while participating in an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York City – one of numerous protests demanding that Israel cease its military actions in Gaza. Moreover, he posted on his X social media page: “We are on the brink of a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza right now — and the manufacturing of consent for sending even more US arms to Israel. Now is the moment for all people of conscience to call for a ceasefire and no more military funding.”

On October 27, 2023, Mamdani wore a “Ceasefire Now” t-shirt as he posed for a photo with six fellow anti-Israel protesters in New York’s Grand Central Station.

In October 2024, Mamdani said he believed that Israel was in fact committing genocide.

In an April 2025 interview, Mamdani was asked how he had arrived at the conclusion that Israel was guilty of genocide. He replied: “Genocide is not just a crime of action, it’s also a crime of intent. And what led me to make that remark was a fear based on the statements we received from a number of Israeli leaders that characterized Palestinians in language more befitting animals than people, and actions that had been taken to shut down civilian access to basic goods such as electricity, for example.”

When a major ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas took place on October 13, 2025 — a deal that included the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and all 20 of the Israeli hostages who were still alive since having been taken into captivity by Palestinians on October 7, 2023 — Mamdani drew a moral equivalence between the two sides in the conflict and characterized Israel as a perpetrator of genocide and apartheid. Among his remarks were the following:

• “Today’s scenes of Israelis and Palestinians are profoundly moving: Israeli hostages being freed and families reunited after years of fear, uncertainty, and torture.”
• “We have watched as our tax dollars have funded a genocide.”
• “We must work towards a future built upon justice, one without occupation and apartheid, and for a world where every person can live with safety and dignity.”

Advocating Netanyahu’s Arrest:
In a 2024 interview, Mamdani stated that if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were ever to visit New York City, he should be arrested in accordance with the International Criminal Court’s warrant for his arrest. As Islam expert Robert Spencer explains:

“On November 25, 2024, Mehdi Hasan, the former MSNBC host, interviewed Mamdani and asked him if he would ‘welcome Prime Minister Netanyahu to New York City for the — for whatever he comes for, given the U.S. is not a signatory to the ICC, so he can travel to the U.S., unlike a lot of other countries? Would a Mayor Mamdani welcome Benjamin Netanyahu to this city?’

“Hasan was referring to the fact that the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Ahmad Khan, had issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, despite the fact that not only the U.S., but Israel also does not accept its jurisdiction. Nevertheless, Mamdani replied readily: ‘No. As mayor, New York City would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu. This is a city that our values are in line with international law. It’s time that our actions are also.’”

Mamdani would later double down on this position when, in July 2026, he stated that he would seek to arrest Netanyahu if the latter were to visit New York City for the upcoming UN General Assembly meeting in September. “I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in the Hague,” said the mayor. “He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court.” “Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that’s what we will do,” Mamdani added.

Also in July 2026, Mamdani, in anticipation of Netanyahu’s scheduled visit to the United Nations General Assembly in September, urged New Yorkers to greet the Israeli Prime Minister with protests in the streets. “This is a city where, if anyone feels a level of frustration or opposition, protest is something that we will always respect,” Mamdani told reporters. “That New Yorkers can express themselves, whether they are in support or in opposition, no matter on whatever topic. And I’ve always said that when we respect our Constitution, we also respect our First Amendment.”

Interview with Hasan Piker, Anti-Semite

In April 2025, Mamdani sat down for an interview with Hasan Piker, a popular figure with millions of followers on the interactive livestreaming service Twitch. Known for his anti-American and anti-Israel perspectives, Piker had previously said (during a 2019 livestream): “America deserved 9/11, dude. I’m saying it. I’m saying it. We fucking totally brought it on ourselves, dude. Holy shit. We did. We fucking did.” On other occasions, Piker had: (a) characterized Israelis as an “inbred” people, and (b) repeatedly accused the Jewish state of committing “genocide” in its ongoing war against Hamas.

During the course of his aforementioned April 2025 interview with Piker, Mamdani himself asserted that Israel was committing “genocide” in Gaza. When a reporter later asked him (in September 2025) to address critics who were condemning him for having granted an interview to Piker, Mamdani ducked the question and insisted instead on talking about other matters.

Refusing to Sign a Pro-Israel Resolution:
In May 2025, Mamdani declined to lend his signature to the New York State Assembly’s annual resolution condemning the Holocaust and celebrating the anniversary of Israel’s 1948 founding. Specifically, he said he objected to the resolution’s assertion that Israel “continues to strive for peace with security and dignity for itself, its neighbors and throughout the world in order to fulfill the prophecy of becoming a light unto the nations.” He also told reporters: “I haven’t been signing on to any resolutions that have been coming through my Assembly email this year as my focus has been on the substance of what we actually legislate on and on running for mayor.”

Advocating the Dissolution of a Council Promoting U.S.-Israeli Economic Ties:
During a PIX11 mayoral forum in June 2025, Mamdani said that if he were to become mayor of New York City, he would disband the council that incumbent mayor Eric Adams had created to strengthen economic ties between the U.S. and Israel.

Declining to Affirm Israel’s Right to Be a Jewish State:
During a Democratic mayoral debate in June 2025, Mamdani said: “I believe Israel has the right to exist.” “As a Jewish state?” the moderator asked. Mamdani answered: “As a state with equal rights.”

During another interview that same month with Fox 5, Mamdani explained why he was uneasy with the prospect of recognizing Israel as a “Jewish” state. “I’m not comfortable supporting any state that has a hierarchy of citizenship on the basis of religion or anything else,” he said. “… Equality should be enshrined in every country in the world. That’s my belief.”

“Globalize the Intifada” & “From the River to the Sea”:
During a June 17, 2025 interview, the host of The Bulwark Podcast asked Mamdani if the phrases “Globalize the Intifada” and “From the River to the Sea” “make you uncomfortable.” (Note: “’Intifada’ is a term signifying militant violence designed to advance the Islamic cause. And “From the River to the Sea” refers to the Islamist quest to purge every last Jew from the land situated between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.) Mamdani replied:

“You know, I know people for whom those things mean very different things. And to me, ultimately, what I hear in so many is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights. And I think what’s difficult also is that the very word [Intifada] has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, because it’s a word that means ‘struggle.’ And as a Muslim man who grew up post-9/11, I’m all too familiar in the way which Arabic words can be twisted, can be distorted, can be used to justify any kind of meaning. And I think that’s where it leaves me with a sense that what we need to do is focus on keeping Jewish New Yorkers safe, and the question of permissibility of language is something that I haven’t ventured into.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, took issue with Mamdani and wrote in a post on X: “Globalize the Intifada is an explicit call for violence. Globalize the Intifada celebrates and glorifies savagery and terror.”

But Mamdani was unfazed by such critics. In a June 29, 2025 appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, he repeatedly refused to condemn, or distance himself from, the phrase “Globalize the Intifada.” Some key excerpts from Mamdani’s exchange with host Kristen Welker:

WELKER: “I want to ask you about an issue that has divided New Yorkers in recent weeks. You were recently asked about the term ‘Globalize the Intifada,’ if it makes you uncomfortable. In that moment, you did not condemn the phrase. Just so folks understand, it’s a phrase that many people hear as a call to violence against Jews. There’s been a lot of attention on this issue. So, I want to give you an opportunity to respond, here and now. Do you condemn that phrase, ‘Globalize the Intifada’?”

MAMDANI: “That’s not language I use. The language that I use, and the language that I will continue to use to lead this city, is that, which speaks clearly to my intent, which is an intent grounded in a belief in universal human rights. And ultimately, that’s what is the foundation of so much of my politics, the belief that freedom and justice and safety are things that have meaning and have to be applied to all people, and that includes Israelis and Palestinians.”

WELKER: “But do you actually condemn it? I think that’s the question and the outstanding issue that a number of people, both of the Jewish faith and beyond, have. Do you condemn that phrase, ‘Globalize the Intifada,’ which a lot of people feel is a call to violence against Jews?”

MAMDANI: “I have heard from many Jewish New Yorkers who have shared their concerns with me … about this moment of anti-Semitism in our country and our city. I’ve heard those fears and I’ve had those conversations, and ultimately they are part and parcel of why, in my campaign, I’ve put forward the commitment to increase funding for anti-hate programming by 800 percent. I don’t believe that the role of the mayor is to police speech, in the manner especially of that of Donald Trump….”

WELKER: “But very quickly, for the people who care about the language and who feel really concerned about that phrase, why not just condemn it?”

MAMDANI: “My concern is to start to walk down the line of language and making clear what language I believe is permissible and impermissible, takes me into a place similar to that of the President [Trump] who is looking to do those very kinds of things, putting people in jail for writing an op-ed, putting them in jail for protesting. Ultimately, it’s not language that I use. It’s language I understand there are concerns about. And what I will do is showcase my vision for the city through my words and my actions.”

Support from CAIR & Other Radical Groups:

The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) funded Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral campaign through $100,000 in donations that The Unity & Justice Fund — which CAIR had established in 2024 to “protect the interests of the [Muslim] community” — gave to New Yorkers for Lower Costs, the largest PAC supporting Mamdani. Other anti-Israel activists and organizations that supported Mamdani’s campaign included: (a) Linda Sarsour ($2,500 to the Unity & Justice Fund); (b) End the Occupation ($1,000 to the Unity & Justice Fund in June 2025); and (c) The Truth Project ($10,000 to New Yorkers for Lower Costs in June 2025).

Promising to Drop Israel Bonds from NYC:

In September 2025, Mamdani said that if he were to be elected mayor, he would eliminate all New York City investments in Israeli government bonds because: “The most important thing is to understand where we are directly implicated within the city pension fund. A pension fund that purchases Israeli bonds, in my view, is clearly an indication of a conflict with our values, and we know that our values are actually within the framework of international law.” Notably, Mamdani did not identify which laws Israel had allegedly broken.

Refusing to Demand That Hamas Disarm: On October 15, 2025, Fox News interviewer Martha MacCallum pressed Mamdani to say whether or not he thought that Hamas should — in compliance with the terms of its newly negotiated ceasefire with Israel — lay down its weapons and permanently disarm. But Mamdani repeatedly refused to endorse such a measure. “I don’t really have opinions about the future of Hamas and Israel beyond the question of justice and safety,” he said evasively, “and the fact that anything has to abide by international law. That applies to Hamas, that applies to the Israeli military, applies to anyone you could ask me about.”

Immigration & Sanctuary City Policies

The official website of Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral campaign accused President Trump of “tearing at the fabric of New York City” by “attack[ing] immigrant New Yorkers” and “deploy[ing] ICE agents to pluck [them] from their families.” To address these matters, Mamdani vowed to:

• “get ICE out of all City facilities and end any cooperation” with federal immigration agents;
• “ensure that no City resources are used for immigration enforcement”; and
• “increase funding for immigration legal services to provide representation for people and communities targeted by mass deportation.”

In a June 2025 Interview, Mamdani was asked to articulate his “position on New York City’s sanctuary city laws” – i.e., statutes that require city employees to refrain from notifying the federal government about the presence of illegal aliens living in their communities. He replied: “The Trump administration is waging war on the First Amendment and our constitutional rights as it continues to abduct New Yorkers from across our city. Any effort to cooperate with these efforts is a moral stain on our city. We should strengthen our sanctuary city laws.”

In a June 2025 interview with The Guardian, Mamdani said he would “unabashedly stand up for our sanctuary city policies which have kept New Yorkers safe, and use every tool at the city’s disposal to protect our immigrants.” “There is no option of surrender,” he added.

In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press that same month, host Kristen Welker asked Mamdani: “Let’s talk about immigration and deportation. Are you committed to keeping New York as a sanctuary city?” Mamdani replied: “Absolutely. Because ultimately, we’ve seen that this is a policy that has kept New Yorkers safe for decades. It’s a policy that had previously been defended by Democrats and Republicans alike until the fear-mongering of this current mayor [Eric Adams]. And it’s a policy that we’ve seen ensures that New Yorkers can get out of the shadows and into the full life of the city that they belong to. And it’s one that I will be proud to stand up for.”

“Well,” Welker retorted, “you know the border czar, Tom Homan, has said that he is planning to deploy ICE agents to New York worksite enforcement, to essentially increase and enhance the number of ICE agents here. If that happens on your watch, how do you plan to handle it?” Mamdani answered: “We have to stand up and fight back, and we haven’t seen that from our current mayor, who has instead been working with the Trump administration to assist in their goal of building the single largest deportation force in American history…. Those days are going to come to an end when I’m the mayor. The NYPD’s job is to create public safety in the city, not to assist ICE agents in their mission to attack the very fabric of this city.”

During a press conference in early November 2025, Mamdani was asked how, if he were to be elected mayor of New York, he planned to deal with ICE agents seeking to enforce President Trump’s immigration policies via raids in the city. In response, Mamdani: (a) condemned then-mayor Eric Adams for having cooperated with Trump, and (b) vowed to defend the city’s sanctuary policy that barred the NYPD from working with ICE to apprehend any illegal aliens —  even the most violent and dangerous ones. “I will not be the mayor that we have today [Adams], who went on national television and opened the door to civil immigration enforcement,” said Mamdani. “I will be the mayor that stands up for our sanctuary city policies, that stands up for every New Yorker’s right to live in this city, and the mayor who will hold everyone accountable to the law, no matter who they are.”

Early Childhood & Education

No-Cost Childcare:
Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral campaign website said: “Zohran will implement free childcare for every New Yorker aged 6 weeks to 5 years, ensuring high quality programming for all families. And he will bring up wages for childcare workers … to be at parity with public school teachers.”

Charter Schools & Voucher Programs:
Charter schools, which are exempt from many state and local regulations, often serve as outstanding alternatives to substandard public schools — particularly in poor urban areas. School voucher programs, meanwhile, allow low-income, mostly-minority parents to take the taxpayer money normally allocated for their child’s education in a failing public school, and use it instead to cover the cost of tuition at a high-quality private school of their choice. But Mamdani, in accord with the official Democrat Party position, opposes funding for both charter schools and voucher programs because they siphon resources away from public schools.

Energy & Environment

State-Controlled Utility Companies:

In a November 21, 2020 social media post displaying a photo accompanied by the caption “NYC-DSA Ecosocialists,” Mamdani urged New Yorkers to “support #publicpower & the need for democratically controlled utilities.”

State-Controlled Renewable Electricity:

In July 2022, Mamdani called for “the New York Power Authority to build, own and sell renewable energy,” soas to “clean up the energy grid, create good union jobs, and lower energy bills.”

Green Schools in NYC:
Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral campaign website said he would “partne[r] with the school system and community leaders” to: (a) “Renovate 500 public schools with renewable energy infrastructure and HVAC upgrades to accelerate NYC’s energy transition and improve learning conditions”; (b) Build 500 green schoolyards, turning heat-absorbing asphalt into vibrant green spaces for students and community members”; (c) “Create at least 15,000 union jobs for the people who build, maintain, and run our schools”; (d) “Transform 50 schools into resilience hubs, year-round community facilities that provide resources and a safe space during emergencies”; and (e) “Prioritize out-of-date facilities and combat environmental racism in NYC.”

Minimum Wage of $30 Per Hour

Mamdani pledged that as mayor, he would “champion a new local law bringing the NYC wage floor up to $30/hour by 2030” – and thereafter increase that wage “based on the cost of living and productivity increases.”

Taxes

“The wealthy have seen a steep decline in their tax rates over the last 60 years,” said Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral campaign website, “but no one has sought to rob the poor and give to the rich as much as Donald Trump,” whose “signature [first-term] accomplishment was a tax cut for corporations and millionaires.” To “fight back and protect everyday New Yorkers” from Trump’s policies, Mamdani proposed to: (a) “ta[x] the wealthiest New Yorkers” to the point where they “pay their fair share,” and (b) “pursue a corporate tax increase for the most profitable businesses operating in New York.”

Transportation

In 2023, then-Assemblyman Mamdani co-introduced a bill to impose a weight-based vehicle-registration fee designed to dissuade New Yorkers from purchasing heavy, gas-guzzling vehicles that also tend to cause a disproportionate amount of damage and injuries in crashes.

Mamdani advocated for a fare-free pilot program for Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) buses, which was put in place for five separate New York City bus routes between September 2023 and August 2024.

Mamdani in 2025 vowed that, if elected mayor, he would “permanently eliminate the fare on every city bus – and make them faster by rapidly building priority lanes, expanding bus queue jump signals, and [providing] dedicated loading zones to keep double parkers out of the way.” On July 3, 2025, The New York Times reported that Mamdani “has vowed to make the city’s bus service — a network of 348 routes that carries 1.4 million passengers a day — free for all” if elected.

Mamdani in 2025 supported the imposition of a “congestion pricing” framework that – in an effort to reduce traffic and carbon emissions — charged drivers a substantial fee to bring their cars into many parts of Manhattan.

In a June 2025 interview, Mamdani was asked – in light of the fact that the state-run MTA had lost an estimated $600 million in revenue due to subway- and bus-fare evasion in 2022 — how the NYPD should enforce transit fares. He replied that police should not issue summonses for fare nonpayment, saying: “Only a third of the almost one million adult New Yorkers who are eligible access Fair Fares. At its core, this is an economic crisis, and we must address it as such.”

Claiming to Be a Victim of Islamophobia

During his 2025 mayoral bid, Mamdani frequently referred to his minority status as a Ugandan-born Muslim immigrant. In a June 2025 interview with an interfaith panel, he spoke about the racism and prejudice that he and his family members had allegedly experienced after 9/11, twenty-four years earlier. “It’s a fear that I remember all too well as a young Muslim man growing up in New York City,” Mamdani claimed. “My aunt, who was a doctor and who wears a hijab, felt like she could not exist in public life anymore.”

In another June 2025 interview with CBS News, Mamdani tearfully said: “I get messages that say things like ‘the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim.’ I get threats on my life and on the people that I love, and I try not to talk about it.”

Endorsers of Mamdani’s Mayoral Campaign

An early and prominent endorser of Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral campaign was Senator Bernie Sanders, who wrote on Instagram: “At this dangerous moment in history, status quo politics isn’t good enough. We need new leadership that is prepared to stand up to powerful corporate interests & fight for the working class. Zohran Mamdani is providing that vision. He is the best choice for NYC mayor.”

Other notable individuals to endorse Mamdani’s mayoral campaign were: Jamaal Bowman, Bill de Blasio, Ella Emhoff (stepdaughter of Kamala Harris), Letitia James, Hakeem Jeffries, Michael Moore, Jerrold Nadler, Cynthia Nixon, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Emily Ratajkowski, Linda Sarsour, Al Sharpton, Nydia Velazquez, and Elizabeth Warren.

Organizational endorsers of Mamdani’s campaign included: the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, Citizen Action of New York, Jewish Voices for Peace Action, Make the Road New York Action, the Muslim Democratic Club of New York, The Nation, the NYC Democratic Socialists of America, the Service Employees International Union, the Sunrise Movement, UNITE Here!, the Working Families Party, and the Movement for Black Lives — an anti-capitalist, anti-police coalition that is a partner of the Marxist, anti-white, Jew-hating Black Lives Matter movement.[2]

Winning the NYC Primary (2025)

In June 2025, Mamdani finished first in an eleven-person primary race for the Democratic mayoral nomination, outpacing runner-up Andrew Cuomo by nearly 13 percentage points in New York City’s “ranked choice” voting system. Incumbent Democrat mayor Eric Adams did not participate in the primary, as he chose to run for re-election as an independent.

In a post on X, Rep. Ilhan Omar celebrated Mamdani’s triumph. “Congratulations @ZohranKMamdani!” the congresswoman wrote. “This is an incredible victory and testament to the people powered campaign you put together. Thank you NYC for not letting the bigots and corrupt billionaires prevail. This victory also belongs to you.” “As you’ll get ready for the general election, know that we will all be cheering you,” Omar added. “Alhamdulillah!” (Note: Alhamdulillah is an Arabic word that translates to “All praise is due to Allah.”)

Former President Bill Clinton wrote on X: “Congratulations @ZohranKMamdani on your victory in yesterday’s primary election and a well-run campaign. I’m wishing you much success in November and beyond as you work to bring New Yorkers together to tackle the city’s challenges and shape a stronger, fairer future.”

Allegations of Mamdani’s Affinity for Terrorists

In June 2025, Republican Rep. Andy Ogles (Tennessee) wrote a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, urging the Department of Justice to investigate Mamdani under 8 U.S.C. § 1451(a), a law that permits the revocation of a person’s naturalized citizenship if he or she is found to have concealed or lied about associations with terrorist groups during the naturalization process. Wrote Ogles in his letter:

“According to public reports, including a June 21, 2025, New York Post article, Mr. Mamdani expressed open solidarity with individuals convicted of terrorism-related offenses prior to becoming a U.S. citizen. Specifically, he rapped: ‘Free the Holy Land Five / My guys.’ The Holy Land Foundation was convicted in 2008 for providing material support to Hamas, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. Publicly praising the Foundation’s convicted leadership as ‘my guys’ raises serious concerns about whether Mr. Mamdani held affiliations or sympathies he failed to disclose during the naturalization process.”

Citing also Mamdani’s recent refusal to disavow the slogan “Globalize the Intifada,” Ogles argued that this “pro-terrorist rallying cry” and “call to expand violent attacks on civilians to the United States and around the world” – when considered alongside Mamdani’s past support for the Holy Land Five — “warrants formal scrutiny.” “The naturalization process depends on the good-faith disclosure of any affiliation with, or support for, groups that threaten U.S. national security,” said Ogles. “If Mr. Mamdani concealed relevant associations, that concealment may constitute a material misrepresentation sufficient to support denaturalization under federal law.”

Massive Spending on Private Security for Himself

Notwithstanding his repeated calls for “defunding the police,” Mamdani spent enormous sums of money on a private security force during his 2025 NYC mayoral campaign. Said an August 8, 2025 Breitbart.com report:

“The openly socialist state assemblyman and Democrat New York City mayoral candidate made three payments ranging from about $8,000 to around $13,000 to Advanced Security & Investigations in June and July, expenditure reports obtained by Fox News revealed. The Mamdani campaign spent a total of $33,495 in just two months with the company, which advertises itself as a ‘proud employer’ of cops with the New York Police Department (NYPD) — which Mamdani has personally called to defund.”

The Radicals in Mamdani’s Advisory Inner Circle

On August 21, 2025, Fox News published an article stating that “New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s growing circle of influence is littered with activists who have espoused anti-Israel views and socialist principles.” Among those individuals were the following:

• Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC): This organization: (a) is dedicated to ending “state support for detention, deportation, and mass incarceration”; (b) has received $175,000 in grants from the nonprofit network of leftwing billionaire George Soros; and (c) has received funding from the Vera Institute for Justice, which aided the Biden administration in helping illegal aliens avoid being deported. According to Awawdeh, illegal aliens “deserve” access to taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits. On August 19, 2022, he posted on X, in capital letters: “SEEKING ASYLUM AT THE BORDER IS A LEGAL RIGHT. ASYLUM SEEKERS ARE FLEEING FOR THEIR LIVES FROM VIOLENCE, PERSECUTION, & IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE. THE U.S. HAS A LEGAL OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE REFUGE.”
• Patrick Gaspard, who served as an advisor for Barack Obama‘s presidential campaign in 2008, executive director of the Democratic National Committee from 2011-2013, president of George Soros’s Open Society Foundations from 2017-2020, and president of the Center for American Progress in 2021: In 2025, Gaspard lauded Soros as “one of our leading defenders of inclusive and accountable democracy and vibrant civil society.”
• Cea Weaver, a Democratic Socialists of America member advising Mamdani on housing issues, including the latter’s plan to “freeze” rents in New York City: She was also the former coalitions director of Housing Justice for All, an alliance of dozens of leftist organizations including the Communist Party of the United States of America and the New York Young Communist League. In 2017, Weaver posted on social media: “Elect more Communists.” The following year, she posted: “Seize private property.”
• Faiza Ali, a former employee of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and an acquaintance of fellow Muslim Democratic Club of New York member Linda Sarsour.
• Maya Handa, a onetime leading advisor to former Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a longtime hater of Israel.
• Morris Katz, a senior advisor to Mamdani: Katz has said that the principal threat to Israel’s existence is “not the Palestinians who’re being oppressed and denied basic human rights,” but rather Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mamdani’s Wife Mourns Death of Hamas Supporter

On October 13, 2025, Mamdani’s wife Rama Duwaji shared four broken-heart emojis on Instagram in response to reports that 27-year-old Palestinian influencer Saleh al-Jafarawi — widely known online for his pro-Hamas videos and his celebratory posts following the October 7, 2023 attack where Hamas terrorists slaughtered more than 1,200 Israelis — had been killed amid clashes in Gaza between Hamas and rival Palestinian factions. Duwaji also posted a second Instagram story that referred to the deceased man as “Beloved Jafarawi.”

Ties to Islamic Radical Siraj Wahhaj and a former “Central Park Five” Gang Member

On October 17, 2025, Mamdani used his X account to post a photo of himself smiling broadly as he stood between the equally exhuberant Siraj Wahhaj and Yusef Salaam, with his arms wrapped around each of their backs. The caption read: “Today at Masjid At-Taqwa, I had the pleasure of meeting with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century. I was also joined by CM @dr_yusefsalaam  of Harlem. A beautiful Jummah.”

• Wahhaj is an Islamic extremist who: was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center (WTC) bombing; testified in defense of “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was a key figure in that WTC attack; periodically invited Abdel-Rahman to preach at his (Wahhaj’s) Brooklyn mosque; and repeatedly called for an Islamic caliphate ruled by sharia law to replace the U.S. government.
• Yusef Salaam, who had been elected to the New York City Council in 2024, was one of the infamous “Central Park Five” gang of criminal teenagers who, in a highly publicized 1989 incident, beat a white female jogger nearly to death and gang-raped her in New York City’s Central Park.

Mayor-Elect Mamdani

On November 5, 2025, Mamdani won the New York City mayoral election by approximately 9 percentage points over runner-up Andrew Cuomo. That night, he began his victory speech with a quote from Eugene Debs, a socialist politician who ran for the office of U.S. President five times between 1900 and 1920. “Thank you, my friends,” said Mamdani. “The sun may have set over our city this evening, but as Eugene Debs once said, ‘I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.’” Following are some excerpted passages from the rest of Mamdani’s speech:

“For as long as we can remember, the working people of New York have been told by the wealthy and the well-connected that power does not belong in their hands.

“Fingers bruised from lifting boxes on the warehouse floor, palms calloused from delivery bike handlebars, knuckles scarred with kitchen burns: These are not hands that have been allowed to hold power. And yet, over the last 12 months, you have dared to reach for something greater.

“Tonight, against all odds, we have grasped it. The future is in our hands. My friends, we have toppled a political dynasty.

“I wish Andrew Cuomo only the best in private life. But let tonight be the final time I utter his name, as we turn the page on a politics that abandons the many and answers only to the few. New York, tonight you have delivered. A mandate for change. ​​A mandate for a new kind of politics. A mandate for a city we can afford. And a mandate for a government that delivers exactly that….

“Thank you to those so often forgotten by the politics of our city, who made this movement their own. I speak of Yemeni bodega owners and Mexican abuelas. Senegalese taxi drivers and Uzbek nurses. Trinidadian line cooks and Ethiopian aunties. Yes, aunties….

“This will be an age where New Yorkers expect from their leaders a bold vision of what we will achieve, rather than a list of excuses for what we are too timid to attempt. Central to that vision will be the most ambitious agenda to tackle the cost-of-living crisis that this city has seen since the days of Fiorello La Guardia: an agenda that will freeze the rents for more than two million rent-stabilized tenants, make buses fast and free, and deliver universal child care across our city.

“Years from now, may our only regret be that this day took so long to come. This new age will be one of relentless improvement. We will hire thousands more teachers. We will cut waste from a bloated bureaucracy. We will work tirelessly to make lights shine again in the hallways of NYCHA developments where they have long flickered.

“Safety and justice will go hand in hand as we work with police officers to reduce crime and create a Department of Community Safety that tackles the mental health crisis and homelessness crises head on. Excellence will become the expectation across government, not the exception. In this new age we make for ourselves, we will refuse to allow those who traffic in division and hate to pit us against one another.

“In this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light. Here, we believe in standing up for those we love, whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community, one of the many Black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job, a single mom still waiting for the cost of groceries to go down, or anyone else with their back against the wall. Your struggle is ours, too.

“And we will build a City Hall that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers and does not waver in the fight against the scourge of antisemitism. Where the more than one million Muslims know that they belong — not just in the five boroughs of this city, but in the halls of power.

“No more will New York be a city where you can traffic in Islamophobia and win an election. This new age will be defined by a competence and a compassion that have too long been placed at odds with one another. We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about….

“Together, we will usher in a generation of change. And if we embrace this brave new course, rather than fleeing from it, we can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears, not the appeasement it craves.

“After all, if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him. And if there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power.

“This is not only how we stop Trump; it’s how we stop the next one. So, Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up.

“We will hold bad landlords to account because the Donald Trumps of our city have grown far too comfortable taking advantage of their tenants. We will put an end to the culture of corruption that has allowed billionaires like Trump to evade taxation and exploit tax breaks. We will stand alongside unions and expand labor protections because we know, just as Donald Trump does, that when working people have ironclad rights, the bosses who seek to extort them become very small indeed.

“New York will remain a city of immigrants: a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants and, as of tonight, led by an immigrant.

“So hear me, President Trump, when I say this: To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us….

“And we must chart a new path, as bold as the one we have already traveled. After all, the conventional wisdom would tell you that I am far from the perfect candidate. I am young, despite my best efforts to grow older. I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this….

“Together, New York, we’re going to freeze the… [rent!]Together, New York, we’re going to make buses fast and… [free!]Together, New York, we’re going to deliver universal… [child care!]

“Let the words we’ve spoken together, the dreams we’ve dreamt together, become the agenda we deliver together. New York, this power, it’s yours. This city belongs to you.

“Thank you.”

Radicals Appointed to Mamdani’s Transition Team

Following Mamdani’s mayoral election victory, he appointed a number of individuals to his 26-member “Committee on Community Safety.” Among the more notable appointees were the following:

1) Alex Vitale: The coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project on the campus of Brooklyn College, Professor Vitale authored the 2017 book The End of Policing, which called for the complete abolition of police officers and police departments nationwide. In an interview that he gave a few weeks after George Floyd’s infamous May 25, 2020 death in Minneapolis, Vitale described policing as “fundamentally a tool of social control to facilitate our exploitation.” During Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral campaign, Vitale advocated shutting down the NYPD’s gang database, which New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch credited as a highly valuable crime-fighting tool. Vitale also urged Mamdani to allow the size of the NYPD’s overall force to decline as much as possible by attrition. Vitale has characterized police as “violence workers” who are “natural enemies of the working class.” And he has described the concept of police reform — as opposed to abolition — as a “misguided,” “laughable,” and “patently ridiculous” notion.

2) Kassandra Frederique: Ms. Frederique is the director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), America’s leading advocate for the legalization of both drug use and drug trafficking. She is also a supporter of supervised drug-consumption sites. Praising New York City for having declared “racism” a “public health crisis,” Frederique has condemned the “racist drug enforcement” practices responsible for “destroying communities and providing a pretext for police violence.” Framing her pro-drug perspectives in the language of “abolition” and revolution, Frederique in a 2021 interview discussed what she viewed as the highly desirable prospect of black revolutionaries “tak[ing] over the state.” She also maintained that drug use could help people get their minds to accept highly radical political and social positions: “There are some people in our movement that need to be high so that they can imagine the world that we can’t see currently.”

3) Jasmine Budnella: Ms. Budnella is the director of drug policy at VOCAL-NY, an organization that has explicitly endorsed the defunding of police. Said the organization in 2020: “In the wake of righteous rage spreading across New York and the United States, we must demand divestment from law enforcement and investment in our communities: housing, care, social services, and public education. The institution of policing cannot create and maintain safety for Black, Brown, and poor communities. No amount of training, body cameras, or ‘reform’ can protect us from the police.”

4) Daniela Gilbert: As the director of “Redefining Public Safety” at the Vera Institute, Ms. Gilbert aims to draw attention to “the social costs of policing.” Says the Institute: “Traditional cost-benefit analyses usually find policing to be ‘cost-effective,’ meaning it creates benefits that exceed its costs. Yet a range of policing activities can result in ‘social costs’ that are not typically considered. As a result of police activity, people can suffer physical and behavioral health problems; lose educational opportunities, jobs, and housing; and withdraw from civic engagement. An emerging body of research illuminates the extent of these social costs, which are borne primarily by Black communities and other overpoliced communities of color.”

5) Justine Olderman: A scholar at New York University Law School’s Center on Race, Equity and the Law, Olderman has lamented that many people – especially nonwhite minorities — become trapped in “various legal and non-legal . . . punitive systems” that pass “unbearable amounts of trauma” down through multiple generations.

6) Tamika Mallory: This Black Lives Matter activist and former Women’s March leader is a friend and loyal supporter of the famed Jew-hater Louis Farrakhan. Said Mallory shortly after the Minneapolis death of George Floyd in May 2020: “We [blacks] are not responsible for the mental illness that has been inflicted upon our people by the American government institutions and those people who are in positions of power. Don’t talk to us about looting. We learn violence from you.”

7) Meg Egan: As the CEO of the Women’s Prison Association, Egan envisions the evolution of a society in which all incarceration is “obsolete.” She describes herself as “an advocate for women affected by incarceration and injustice.”

8) Janos Marton: Mr. Marton is the state campaigns manager for the ACLU Campaign for Smart Justice. City Journal reports that Marton in 2020 “ran for Manhattan DA on a platform that called for cutting the local jail population by 80 percent, virtually eliminating pretrial detention, capping sentences at 20 years, and ‘ending the war on drugs’ by abolishing New York City’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office.” Moreover, Marton cherishes incidents where police are charged with misconduct because they provide a pretext for “shrink[ing] the size of the police budget so that there’s fewer police officers.” In short, each new police scandal can potentially help move the NYPD’s size “in the right direction towards abolition.”

9) Dana Rachlin: In a 2020 radio interview, this police reform advocate noted that, at the time, there were “40,000 names on the [New York City] gang database,” compared with “only 36,000 members of service in the NYPD.” “That’s more votes,” she said in celebration of the fact that gang members potentially could cast more ballots than police officers in New York City political elections. “And, if you … take into account how many people that are members of service don’t even live in the city [and thus] can’t vote for the mayor, … at the end of the day the voting bloc is much bigger on the other [gang members’] side than it is on that [police] side.”

10) Max Markham: This executive director of New York University’s Policing Project calls for police officers to be less involved in certain types of emergency-response situations. “We believe it is time for a national conversation about what public safety means, and how it is best achieved,” says the organization.

11) Maurice Vann: This CUNY social work professor told students in a 2020 lecture: “As we defund the police, social workers will get more funding and more employment opportunities” in “community safety” roles.

Mamdani Appoints a 9/11 Terror Lawyer as Chief Counsel

In December 2025, Mayor-elect Mamdani announced that the city’s Chief Counsel would be Ramzi Kassem, a Syrian national who grew up in Lebanon, Iraq and other Islamic terror states before arriving in the U.S. to attend college, spread terrorist propaganda, and eventually become a defense attorney for Islamic terrorists.

In an op-ed that appeared in the Columbia Daily Spectator on September 17, 2001, Kassem wrote:

• “I am disturbed and dispirited by ominous signs of our country losing its bearings…. Domestically, my concerns are twofold. The immediate backlash against people of apparent Arab descent or Islamic faith is one cause for alarm. Such acts of hatred cannot be solely attributed to the provincialism and ignorance of an isolated few. They also stem from the virulent racism in our media and in some of our government’s policies…. More worrisome still is our elected representatives’ seeming willingness to compromise our civil liberties in an elusive quest for absolute security.”
• “As for long-term strategies to prevent and guard against such threats in the future, I can not help but note that failure to address the root causes of this problem leaves it intact and leads to flawed conclusions which may, in turn, perpetuate the problem…. The perpetrators were probably not driven to their actions by some intrinsic evil or inherent hatred of the good United States…. The resentment these terrorists felt towards the United States was rooted in political realities shaped by our country’s policies.”
• Our government has supported dictatorial and repressive regimes across the Middle East and elsewhere for years, in total disregard of the aspirations and better interests of the indigenous populations of those regions. This oppressive political reality is lived by millions, and only an infinitesimal few decide to go to the horrible extremes we had the misfortune of witnessing last week. It is to these populations’ credit that they didn’t dehumanize us the way we have dehumanized them.”
• “Thousands of Palestinians across the West Bank lit candles, grieving in solidarity with Americans, despite the fact that they suffer on a daily basis from violence not unlike what we
  have had to endure, because our government arms the [Israeli] government that occupies their land.”
• “The Bush administration might hope to ride the ambient jingoism into a second term, but the more responsible option would be to rethink some of our foreign policies in order to win over the hearts and minds of much of the world.”

Repeatedly justifying terrorism as an understandable reaction to alleged abuses, Kassem has stated: “Terrorism is but one of many reactions to oppression and dispossession and not their cause.”

During his student days at Columbia University and Columbia Law School, respectively, Kassem co-founded a pair of Muslim student organizations called Turath and Qanun. A fellow student reported that these groups, “under the guidance of Mr. Kassem,” brought “speakers to this campus that support violence against American and Israeli civilians … defended the genocidal program of Hamas.” One of those invited speakers was known for having said that Jews exist only to “dip their matzahs in the blood of Palestinian children.”

One of the clients whom Kassem defended in his legal practice was Guantanamo Bay inmate Ahmed al-Darbi, who was: (a) an Al Qaeda terrorist; (b) the brother-in-law of one of the hijackers who flew a plane into the Pentagon on 9/11; and (c) a key figure in the bombing of an oil tanker.

Another of Kassem’s clients was Mohammad Mani Ahmad al-Qahtani, the suspected ’20th hijacker’ for the 9/11 attacks who was deported when he could not clear immigration standards.

Kassem also defended the Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil against Trump administration attempts to deport him for his leadership role in a series of pro-Hamas protests on campus in 2024. Those protests featured such actions as: (a) surrounding Jewish students and preventing them from being able to move about; (b) violently interrupting classes taught by Jewish and Israeli faculty; and (c) vandalizing buildings on campus.

Inaugural Address as Mayor

On January 1, 2026, Mamdani delivered his inaugural address as New York City’s mayor. Some notable excerpts:

• “Thank you to the two titans who, as an Assemblymember, I’ve had the privilege of being represented by in Congress—Nydia Velázquez and our incredible opening speaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. You have paved the way for this moment.”
• “Thank you to the man whose leadership I seek most to emulate, who I am so grateful to be sworn in by today—Senator Bernie Sanders.”
• “A moment like this comes rarely. Seldom do we hold such an opportunity to transform and reinvent. Rarer still is it the people themselves whose hands are the ones upon the levers of change. And yet we know that too often in our past, moments of great possibility have been promptly surrendered to small imagination and smaller ambition. What was promised was never pursued, what could have changed remained the same. For the New Yorkers most eager to see our city remade, the weight has only grown heavier, the wait has only grown longer.”
• “To those who insist that the era of big government is over, hear me when I say this—no longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorkers’ lives. For too long, we have turned to the private sector for greatness, while accepting mediocrity from those who serve the public. I cannot blame anyone who has come to question the role of government, whose faith in democracy has been eroded by decades of apathy. We will restore that trust by walking a different path—one where government is no longer solely the final recourse for those struggling, one where excellence is no longer the exception.”
• “Twelve years ago, Bill de Blasio stood where I stand now as he promised to ‘put an end to economic and social inequalities’ that divided our city into two. In 1990, David Dinkins swore the same oath I swore today, vowing to celebrate the “gorgeous mosaic” that is New York, where every one of us is deserving of a decent life.  And nearly six decades before him, Fiorella La Guardia took office with the goal of building a city that was ‘far greater and more beautiful’ for the hungry and the poor…. Over the years to come, my administration will resurrect that legacy. City Hall will deliver an agenda of safety, affordability, and abundance—where government looks and lives like the people it represents, never flinches in the fight against corporate greed, and refuses to cower before challenges that others have deemed too complicated.”
• “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”
• “The cost of childcare will no longer discourage young adults from starting a family—because we will deliver universal childcare for the many by taxing the wealthiest few. Those in rent-stabilized homes will no longer dread the latest rent hike—because we will freeze the rent. Getting on a bus without worrying about a fare hike or whether you’ll be late to your destination will no longer be deemed a small miracle—because we will make buses fast and free.”
• “We will govern without shame and insecurity, making no apology for what we believe. I was elected as a Democratic socialist and I will govern as a Democratic socialist. I will not abandon my principles for fear of being deemed radical. As the great Senator [Bernie Sanders] from Vermont once said: ‘What’s radical is a system which gives so much to so few and denies so many people the basic necessities of life.’”

Mamdani Appointee Catherine Almonte Da Costa Resigns after Anti-Jewish & Racist Posts Are Exposed

On December 17, 2025, Mayor-elect Mamdani appointed 33-year-old Catherine Almonte Da Costa, who had previously worked with former Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio’s census team, as his Director of Appointments. But just two days later, Da Costa resigned from her post after the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of New York and New Jersey had flagged a number of “antisemitic” tweets she had posted online in previous years. For example, in 2011 and 2012 Da Costa had referred to “money hungry Jews,” described a New York City subway as the “Jew train,” and issued remarks about working with “rich Jewish peeps.”

Da Costa’s past social media activity also contained expressions of contempt for police officers. For instance, she had:

• used profanity toward law-enforcement officers
• referred to police as “piggies”
• expressed support for defunding the New York Police Department (NYPD) during the wave of protests that followed the famous death of George Floyd in 2025

In addition, anti-white sentiments were also present in Da Costa’s posts. Some examples:

• Two day after Donald Trump was elected to his first term as President in 2016, Da Costa wrote: “This was a harsh blow but it’s not the first time this country has let me down. It’s important that white people feel defeated.”
• On January 19, 2020, she wrote: “For so long power has been in the hands of men and/or white people. It has brought us ruin.”
• In a December 20, 2019 post about the Christmas lore of Santa Claus, Da Costa wrote that she herself would not tell her children “that an old white man is the one bringing them presents.”
• In an August 17, 2020 post referencing the Democratic National Convention, she wrote: “You can see who they are trying to win over, a lot of white people.”

Communist Cea Weaver in the Spotlight

In the early days of Mamdani’s mayoralty, Cea Weaver, whom Mamdani had named as director of the New York City Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, drew considerable media attention as a result of: (a) work she had performed for a “housing justice” organization that was allied with the New York Young Communist League; (b) her status as a high-ranking operative of the Democratic Socialists of America; and (c) numerous radical comments she had spoken or written in recent years. Some examples of those comments:

• “There is no such thing as a ‘good’ gentrifier, only people who are actively working on projects to dismantle white supremacy and capitalism, and people who aren’t.”
• “Impoverish the *white* middle class. Homeownership is racist/failed public policy.”
• “Private property including any kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy.”
• “Elect more Communists.”
• “Our goal is to have the housing actually be worthless in to some degree (sic).”
• “Public housing for everyone.”
• “Seize private property.“
• “Tax the rich… invest in the public good, stop all evictions and fund safe, stable public housing for everyone.”
• “We’ll transition from treating property as an individual good to a collective good. Whites especially will be impacted.”

Professing His Support for the Protection of Illegal Aliens

Speaking at his first Interfaith Breakfast at the New York Public Library on February 6, 2026, Mamdani charged that the Immigration & Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) had degenerated, under President Trump, into a “rogue agency” guilty of “cruelty that staggers the conscience.” That same day, the mayor signed an executive order requiring ICE agents to obtain a judicial warrant before they would be permitted to enter New York City buildings in pursuit of illegal aliens— a requirement that had already been in place during the administration of his predecessor, Eric Adams. Lamenting that “masked [ICE] agents paid by our own tax dollars violate the Constitution and visit terror upon our neighbors,” Mamdani, quoting a phrase from the Bible, said: “They arrive as if atop a pale horse, and they leave a path of wreckage in their wake. It is a manifestation of the abuse of power. We will make it clear once again ICE will not be able to enter New York City property without a judicial warrant. That means our schools, our shelters, and our hospitals.”

Among Mamdani’s additional remarks were the following:

“I consider my own faith, Islam, a religion built upon a narrative of migration. The story of the hijrah reminds us that Prophet Muhammad was a stranger too, who fled Mecca and was welcomed in Medina. Surah Al-Nahl 1642 tells us, ‘As for those who immigrated in the cause of Allah after being persecuted, we will surely bless them with a good home in this world.’ Or as the Prophet Muhammad said, ‘Islam began as something strange and will go back to being strange. So glad tidings to the strangers.’  If faith offers us the moral compass to stand alongside the stranger, government can provide the resources. Let us create a new expectation of City Hall, where power is wielded to love, to embrace, and to protect. We will stand with the stranger today.”

Minimizing the Significance of Teen Violence Against Police Officers

On February 23, 2026, Mamdani whitewashed a shocking incident where a large horde of screaming males in their teens and twenties aggressively hurled a sustained barrage of snowballs and ice chunks at a group of five policemen who were walking through New York’s Washington Square Park, forcing the officers to quickly leave the scene. The assailants also mocked and cursed at the officers, some of whom sustained injuries to their faces and heads and were taken to a hospital for treatment.

After the officers got into their police vehicle in an effort to leave the area, the crowd pelted the vehicle with snowballs and blocked its path by standing and dancing in front of it. They also videotaped their actions while continuing to mock the officers.

A statement that Mamdani’s office subsequently sent to the NYPD said that the mayor “does not believe this situation rises to the level of criminal charges.” When speaking to the press, Mamdani himself said the incident merely “looked like kids having a snowball fight.” The following day, he issued such remarks as:

• “What I saw yesterday in these videos was a snowball fight that got out of hand.”
• “I’m not going to be banning snowball fights or organized snowball fights.”

By March 4, 2026, two of the assailants had been arrested for their role in the February 23 incident.

Publishing the Names of Nearly a Million Wealthy NYers Subject to a Pied-à-Terre Tax

In February 2026, Mayor Mamdani threatened to hike property taxes in New York City by 9.5% unless he was permitted to “tax the rich” as a means of raising enough revenue to offset a $12 billion budget gap — a gap whose estimated size would later be revised down to $5.4 billion.

In an effort to address the aforementioned budget gap, Mamdani and New York Governor Kathy Hochul jointly announced on April 15, 2026, a legislative proposal for the implementation of a pied-à-terre tax — i.e., a tax on secondary, part-time homes that were not their owners’ primary residences and thus were mostly unoccupied. This proposed tax would be levied on secondary residences valued at $1 million or more within New York City’s five boroughs. 

On May 27, 2026, the New York State Legislature approved the pied-à-terre tax as part of the state’s budget for fiscal year 2026–2027. The tax officially went into effect on July 1, 2026.

On July 23, 2026, Mamdani announced that the city would soon be mailing out letters to approximately 13,000 people, warning them that their secondary residences could possibly be subject to the new tax.

But that 13,000 figure turned out to be a massive understatement.

On July 27, 2026, Mamdani’s administration published a searchable database of no fewer than 960,000 NYC properties — along with the full names and addresses of every property owner — that might be subject to the pied-à-terre tax. “The best city in the world deserves the best parks, libraries, and schools in the world,” said the mayor. “That’s only possible when we all pay our fair share.”

New York City Council Minority Leader David Carr (R-Staten Island) characterized the publication of Mamdani’s list as “a reckless and foolish move, especially considering there are potentially thousands of properties on this list that do not qualify as second homes or whose owners will successfully dispute their inclusion.”

Steven Fulop, president and CEO of the nonprofit business advocacy group Partnership for NYC, said that Mamdani was setting “a dangerous precedent” by “publishing names and addresses” of “people who have done nothing wrong, at a moment when the far-left already treats success itself as something to be punished.”

Government Seizure of NYC Housing

On May 26, 2026, Mayor Mamdani announced that he was going to seize rental properties from landlords who had not maintained them properly, and hand over ownership not to the city government, but to supposedly impartial players and fair dealers such as “community land trusts” and “non-profits.” “For buildings that have suffered chronic neglect,” Mamdani declared proudly, “we will work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards. Stewards that include community land trusts, non-profits, or even the tenants themselves.”

As author Robert Spencer pointed out that under Mamdani’s plan: “[T]he state wouldn’t own the housing; non-profits would own the housing, which means that he will be giving the properties over to his friends to give them a secure source of funding in order to help the far-left consolidate its power over the city.”

New York City Council member Vickie Paladino, a most vociferous and insightful critic of Mamdani, put it this way: “The properties will then be turned over to nonprofits. This is no small detail. This is in fact the whole point. The idea here is to build up Zohran’s DSA-connected nonprofits with a multibillion-dollar portfolio of hard assets — New York City real estate. This portfolio could theoretically reach into the hundreds of billions or even the trillions, depending on how aggressive they get. Now these highly political nonprofits would become the new land barons of New York, complete with all the political clout, leverage, and reach that goes along with it. It would be a true nightmare scenario.”

Mourning the Death of an Alleged Hamas Operative

During a June 2026 press conference regarding casualties in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza, Mayor Mamdani sparked controversy when he publicly mourned the recent death (in Gaza) of Al Jazeera journalist Ahmed Wishah, who was killed by an IDF airstrike that Mamdani cited as a tragic example of unjustified Israeli violence in the region. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), however, claimed that Wishah was actually a Hamas sniper posing as a journalist. Said the IDF in a statement: “In recent months, he advanced sniper attack plans and worked alongside his brother, Muhammad Samir Muhammad Washah, a key terrorist in Hamas’ rocket and weapons production headquarters, who also operated under the guise of an Al Jazeera journalist and was eliminated in April.” Moreover, the IDF published videos and photos of Ahmed Wishah wearing a Hamas military ID while armed with automatic weapons and accompanied by fellow fighters.

Lauding the Virtues of Socialism

After signing into law the largest budget in New York City history on July 1, 2026, Mamdani stated that “if these past months have shown us anything, it is that socialists not only understand economics as well as the capitalists who came before, but that we can solve their years of mismanagement through an embrace of our principles.”

Mamdani Publicly Mourns the Death of a Brutal Black Murderer

On August 25, 2026, Mayor Mamdani mourned the death of 41-year-old Clarence Woodward, who had used a meat cleaver to stab two men in a savage, unprovoked attack inside a Bronx, NewYork laundromat 17 days earlier, at 2:42 a.m. on August 8. “A 47-year-old man was stabbed in the back,” reported local radio station WABC. “He was taken to Lincoln Hospital in stable condition. Another man [45-year-old Jose Miranda] was stabbed in the legs, torso, and back. He was pronounced dead at Lincoln Hospital.”

Mamdani never spoke or wrote even a single word about Miranda after the latter’s death at the hands of Woodward. But when Woodward subsequently died on August 25 from a medical emergency at the Rikers Island prison where he was incarcerated for having killed Miranda, the mayor wrote on social media:

“I am deeply saddened by the death of a New Yorker in City custody at a jail on Rikers Island early this morning. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones as they grieve this loss. We do not yet know the cause of death, but we do know that too many New Yorkers have died on Rikers Island. The Department of Correction and its oversight partners will investigate the circumstances surrounding his death. Our administration is fully committed to the critical work of creating better conditions in our city’s jail system and closing Rikers Island as quickly as possible.”

Mamdani Boycotts the Columbus Day Parade in NYC

Breaking a many-decades-long New York City mayoral tradition, Mamdani chose not to march in the city’s Columbus Day parade on October 12, 2026. He likewise had skipped the Israel Day Parade on May 31. By contrast, Mamdani had attended the following parades in 2026:

• Lunar New Year Parade
• Puerto Rican Day Parade
• Dominican Day Parade
• Bangladesh Day Parade
• Sikh Day Parade
• West Indian Day Parade
• African American Day Parade
• Pride Parade
  
• Mexican Independence Day Parade (where he served as Grand Marshal)
• Nigerian Independence Day Celebration / Parade
• Saint Patrick’s Day Parade

Footnotes:

1. https://jacobin.com/2020/02/zohran-mamdani-new-york-state-assembly-socialist-queens
   https://www.nationalworld.com/us/zohran-mamdani-age-religion-parents-his-wife-and-why-the-nyc-mayoral-candidate-is-pulling-ahead-of-andrew-cuomo-5179802
   https://x.com/ZohranKMamdani/status/1199409082773360640
   https://religionnews.com/2025/06/25/zohran-mamdanis-muslim-faith-quickly-targeted-after-his-victory-in-nyc-mayoral-primary/
   https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/zohran-mamdani-s-last-name-reflects-centuries-20768824.php
   https://phyllis-chesler.com/articles/mamdani-hardly-an-original-thinker
   https://lasvegassun.com/news/2025/jun/29/mamdani-win-could-be-sign-of-shift-in-politics-for/
   https://zamin.uz/en/world/153107-anti-israel-muslim-mamdani-leads-new-york-mayoral-race.html
   https://rairfoundation.com/zohran-mamdanis-family-legacy-radicalism-trevor-loudons-warning/
   https://www.thedailyjagran.com/us/news/who-is-indian-origin-zohran-mamdani-likely-to-become-first-muslim-new-york-mayor-10247692
   https://americankahani.com/perspectives/soft-antisemitism-zohran-mamdanis-muslim-faith-quickly-targeted-after-his-shocking-victory-in-nyc-mayoral-primary/ 
2. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/05/rep-aoc-backs-zohran-mamdani-as-her-top-pick-after-debate-00388946 https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/14/aoc-rallies-against-cuomo-gerontocracy-00406346
   https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2025/06/24/hollywood-celebrities-back-democratic-socialist-zohran-mamdani-for-new-york-city-mayor/
   https://www.yahoo.com/news/nyc-mayoral-frontrunner-zohran-mamdanis-182309899.html
   https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/06/25/ilhan-omar-praises-zohran-mamdanis-victory-in-nyc-primary-alhamdulillah/
   https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/06/25/ilhan-omar-praises-zohran-mamdanis-victory-in-nyc-primary-alhamdulillah/
   https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/06/26/marlow-mamdani-is-a-true-radical-endorsed-by-clinton-and-de-blasio/

Additional Resources:

Zohran Mamdani’s Inner Circle
By Nicholas Fandos, Emma G. Fitzsimmons and Lily Boyce
August 12, 2025

New York Braces for a Mayor Mamdani
By Nicole Gelinas
October 5, 2025

Mayor Mamdani’s Friendly Influencers and the Funding of Public Messaging in New York City
By Dr. Anya Schiffrin
August 31, 2026

BOOK

Intifada on the Hudson: The Selling of Zohran Mamdani
By Robert Spencer
2025

VIDEO

Future NYC Mayor Mamdani: Private Property and Free Markets Are the Enemy
By Dad Save America
August 2025

©2026 Dr. Richard M. Swier, LTC U.S. Army (Ret.). All rights reserved.