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Mayor Mamdani vs. the New York Post (and Its Ilk)

Mayor Mamdani vs. the “New York Post” (and Its Ilk)

The broad swath of centrist Democrats and conservatives who have hoped to wound Mamdani enough to sap him of political capital are still figuring out how to land real blows.

More than half a year into his unprecedented tenure as mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist, has encountered his fair of challenges. There were the homeless deaths during a brutally cold winter. There was a budget gap that threatened to damage the city’s finances. There were squabbles over how to close it—Mamdani, at one point, floated a deeply unpopular property tax hike—and tussles with the City Council over how generously to fund an ambitious and very expensive housing voucher program. Later on, Mamdani’s decision to endorse two DSA members running for Congress alienated senior members of the House delegation. Through it all, his rivals and ideological enemies stood ready to pounce on just about every misstep, real or perceived.

What’s made the Mamdani mayoralty fascinating is how, for now at least, it’s overcome powerful and entrenched opposition. Never before was a mayor elected who was despised by so many wealthy New Yorkers. Plenty of elites disliked Bill de Blasio, the last mayor who identified as a progressive, but even he was a career politician who had forged close relationships with the major real estate developers in the five boroughs. Mamdani, from the jump, was an enemy of capital, even as he’s sought to smooth over relationships with the business community. His battle with Ken Griffin, a right-wing billionaire, over his support for a tax on luxury second homes—Mamdani cut a video singling Griffin out—was a reminder of where the mayor stood.

(Disclosure: In 2018, when I ran for office, Mamdani was my campaign manager.)

The broad swath of centrist Democrats and conservatives who have hoped to wound Mamdani enough to sap him of political capital are still figuring out, all these months later, how to land real blows. Mamdani, to them, is almost like a rope-a-dope fighter, ducking and dodging whenever they feel they’re close, slowly wearing them down. Emblematic of this dynamic has been Mamdani’s relationship with the New York Post. The........

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