Mamdani, the mayor who embodies everything Trump hates

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT TO NEW YORKZohran Mamdani is the candidate of the improbable. In a matter of months, he has gone from being a complete unknown in the Queens neighborhood to one of the Democratic Party's rising stars; he has won the mayoralty of the world's financial capital despite being a socialist, becoming the first Muslim to govern New York City. His rise has forced both Donald Trump and Elon Musk to support his rival, former Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, rather than the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa.

Mamdani is the candidate of the improbable made possible, and for that very reason, he has become a ray of light in an increasingly dark United States under the president's authoritarian tendencies. He is the promise of the people against the elite, and his credibility lies not only in his commitment to making New York more livable for the middle and working classes, increasingly burdened by the price of rent. The meetings of the major real estate magnates to finance Cuomo and Trump's demonization They are another guarantor of the interests that Mamdani represents.

"A vote for Curtis Sliwa is a vote for Mamdani. Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really don't have a choice. You have to vote for him and hope he does a fantastic job," Trump wrote on Truth Social the day before the election. And he threatened New Yorkers with completely cutting off federal funding to the city if "a communist like Mamdani" won.

In the hours before the polls opened, social media was flooded with posts from Trump supporters and far-right accounts against Mamdani, as if he were some kind of cataclysm for New York. On an internet where the algorithm of certain platforms, like X, is increasingly biased in favor of extremist positions, Mamdani has made his way into the electorate. The millennial candidate The 34-year-old showed that he didn't need media attention to build a campaign from the ground up using memes and references that most young people use.

Young rapper, son of migrants

Mr. Cardamom (the stage name of a post-adolescent Mamdani who rapped) has skillfully played with social media humor and built his following with the support of many young people who, according to polls, are increasingly conservative. His choice of stage name already reflected the strong presence of his Indian heritage in his identity. Mamdani is the son of political scientist Mahmood Mamdani, and his mother, Mira Nair, is an Oscar-nominated film director.

The couple lived in Uganda, where Mamdani was born, and moved to New York when he was seven. He studied at the Bronx Public Institute of Science and later graduated from Bowdoin College with a degree in African studies. During these years, he was one of the driving forces behind the university chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a group that played a key role in the pro-Palestinian encampments that sprang up last year on many campuses across the country.

Over the years, Mamdani has maintained his commitment to the Palestinian people's struggle. He has never hidden his pro-Palestinian stance, nor his religion: Islam. On the contrary, the socialist has always embraced this spiritual belief in the city of the 9/11 attacks. On election day morning, just before entering his polling place in the Astoria neighborhood, Mamdani allowed himself to be surrounded by a group from the Jamaican Muslim community of Southeast Queens, who prayed for him. The young politician joined in the prayer and embraced them.

It is precisely this consistency with his values and principles, which he has never rejected or hidden despite being the main target of his rivals' attacks, that has lent even more credibility and humanity to his campaign. Despite his brief political career, he knew firsthand how electoral contests work. He began his career in local Queens politics, working on the campaigns of other Democratic candidates in the borough. It wasn't until 2020 that he fully entered politics as a state legislator in the New York State Assembly.

The Democratic candidate is well aware of the reality faced by the immigrants who built the United States. A few months ago, he accompanied his father to a New York courthouse so he could take the citizenship exam. The now-mayor, who at the time hadn't even won the party primaries, waited anxiously for his father to leave the building, aware of the racial profiling that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) often conducts in courthouses. In his victory speech, he clearly recalled this: "New York will continue to be a city of immigrants, and now it will also be governed by an immigrant." Mamdani obtained US citizenship just seven years ago, in 2018.

A member of the Democratic Socialists of America (SDA), Mamdani has become a thorn in the side of the city's big landlords and billionaires with his proposals focused on making New York more. In one of the world's most expensive cities, some of Mamdani's promises include implementing free buses, freezing rents, and establishing city-owned supermarkets.

The Democratic candidate's rhetoric also strongly recalls the message of hope that propelled Barack Obama to the US presidency in 2009. On Monday, at the campaign's closing rally, Mamdani crossed the Brooklyn Bridge at dawn to City Hall with a message of support for the city that is so desperately needed.

The most left-leaning soul

Mamdani embodies the most left-leaning soul within the Democratic Party, and his victory in the June primaries has already raised several eyebrows among the establishment. of the party. His proposals, such as freezing rents and providing free buses, as well as his openly pro-Palestinian stance, have distanced him from a large part of the party. For example, the Democratic minority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, has not supported him.

But the reality is that one of the most remarkable aspects of Mamdani's campaign, and one that speaks volumes about his political acumen, is how, since winning the primaries, he has modulated his approach. The essence remains the same, but the central focus of his discourse has shifted: he speaks more about helping renters and less about punishing landlords; he wants to strengthen public education, not harm private education; he is openly pro-Palestinian, but he doesn't speak of anti-Zionism. Furthermore, he has spent these past months meeting with local leaders, and especially with those who have criticized him—from pro-Israel activists to billionaires—for listening to them.