As the FT has reported this morning:
President Donald Trump has branded Zohran Mamdani “a 100% Communist Lunatic” the day after the New York mayoral hopeful won a surprise victory in the city's Democratic primary.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump attacked Mamdani as a “radical leftie” who was “on his way to becoming Mayor”.
These two paragraphs present me with a conundrum. To describe Zoran Mamdani as a 100% communist is obviously entirely absurd. It's true that he is a socialist. It is also true that he is not a Zionist. Glaringly obviously, he is a Muslim. But is he a communist? Only in the brains of the far right is that a possibility.
On the other hand, Trump is right in describing Mamdani as a radical leftie who is on his way to becoming mayor of New York. That does, indeed, look to be the case.
Right across the media, the panic of the political establishment on this issue is apparent. The Democratic Party establishment is in meltdown, fearful of what this means for their view of the world that was so resoundingly rejected when Trump was elected.
And the GOP is also panicked. The ad hominem attacks might be flying, but what comments from Trump and others suggest is that they are also worried about the prospect of a real alternative that actually reflects the disillusionment of the people of the USA being put before the electorate of the country, and what that night means for them.
New York is not, of course, typical of the US.
And Mamdani has not won yet.
If, as expected, he wins the nomination, Cuomo might still stand, not that he has much chance, I suggest.
More likely is that money will go into the coffers of another independent candidate that the New York financial oligarchy is now desperately seeking to find. As the FT notes this morning:
Panicked Wall Street financiers are racing to rally behind an “anyone-but-Mamdani” candidate for New York City mayor after 33-year-old democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani unexpectedly clinched the Democratic nomination on Tuesday.
I have no idea what will happen in this race as yet. Nor has anyone else, but what we can be sure of are three things.
The first is that the establishment, whether Republican or Democratic, is spooked.
The second is that the reason why they are spooked is that Mamdani undoubtedly has popular support. As is the case in the UK, the people of the USA have had enough of the right-wing political establishment in whatever form it wishes to present itself to the electorate.
Third, there are lessons to learn here. Being left of centre, coherent, charismatic, persistent, and very obviously ethical has electoral appeal. Who would have thought it?
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We are rapidly reaching the point where we can watch Zionist ethnic cleansing and genocide, but not watch Kneecap or engage in Palestinian protest marches. Where Iran absolutely MUST never be allowed to have nuclear weapons, while WE can freely add more such weapons to our already existing nuclear arsenal. Where we cannot possibly provide financial support for disabled or poor people or fr better health services and education, yet have all the money in the world for the military industrial complex and the so-called royal family – the latest indulgence a makeover of St James Park in the centre of London that is just fine as a peaceful oasis a stone’s throw from Whitehall as it is.
There has never been such a disconnect between what people actually want, and what our bought and paid for politicians actually deliver. And there is nothing remotely on the horizon that suggests this disconnect will be bridged any time in the future. Voting simply does not matter any more, if it ever did.
Many thanks
This might go on the blog…
On the subject of extra military spending, Craig Murray (sorry Richard) has a fascinating story about the aircraft that were vandalised by Palestine Action at Brize Norton. He shows that they are in fact owned by a hedge fund based in the Cayman Islands and leased, along with the ground crew, to the RAF. So a bit like a PFI which as we know has cost the UK tax payer zillions in the past for schools and other public structures. This has come to light largely through the UK Government’s draconian proposed action to proscribe PA as a terrorist group and which they may now regret.
This has been going on since 2000.
As these aircraft carriers are owned by a hedge fund could the hedge fund stop them from going in to a war zone on the basis that the carriers could sink and the hedge fund could loose their investment.?
I presume not. But who knows?
If voting changed the status quo, the establishment would ban it.
No they wouldn’t.
Sorry, but why talk in such a defeatist way? I just don’t get it.
As you’d expect, some very good coverage of this by Chris Hayes (with the segment above it, comment from Bernie Sanders). Hayes rightly calls it ‘seismic’. As he also points out, given that young people supported Mamdani overwhelmingly it may well mean quite a few ‘establishment’ democrats being primaried. Well worth watching for the clip of Mamdani debating Cuomo. https://www.msnbc.com/all
There’s also an interview with Mamdani here: https://www.msnbc.com/jen-psaki
Thanks, Ivan
I was interested to read your comments that the wealthy won’t leave New York because of high taxes. The NY City comptroller seems to think they are leaving. A 2023 report estimated that by 2025, $9bn dollars would be lost as a result of the wealthy leaving New York, most of them heading to Florida which has much lower taxes. Notable billionaires have left recently, such as billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn, hedge fund managers Paul Tudor Jones and Daniel Och and Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper. Corporations, particularly in finance and tech, have then followed talent to Florida. With the wealthiest 1% contributing 40% of NYC’s income tax take, it doesn’t take many leaving to make a difference.
I’m curious as to what research you did which leads you to think that The NY City comptroller is wrong and you are right.
Perhaps you could cite some of your sources, as I have done.
I don’t recall saying the wealthy would not leave.
But since the tax increases are on corporations trading on Wall Street, how are they going to leave?
And if you think more than a handful will leave, you are as deluded as all the others who always claim this will happen.
For what it’s worth, in an interview with Mamdani that I’ve just watched one of his proposals to make New York more affordable for the majority (not minority) to live in is a 1% (yes, one percent) increase in tax on those earning more the 1 million (one million) dollars a year. I would have thought that unlikely to scare anyone away. Then again, in my experience rich people are so greedy, needy, and obsessed with their perceived entitlement to ever more money that perhaps they will.
It won’t scare anyone away.
Terry – your ‘top down’ theory of the rich is complete bullshit.
The only things that is ‘top down’ about the rich in the states is their use of money-power to corrupt their politics and get the governments and the policies they want. The money does not flow down Terry, it flows out to capture U.S. political parties and offshore accounts.
If the rich leaving New York means that some nice properties could be repurposed for the city’s homeless – well, what would be so bad about that?
Wake up will you, there’s a good chap.
What percentage of total tax — not cherry-picked income tax — do they contribute? They wealthy are parasites first and foremost.
With all the terrible news relentlessly battering us daily, Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic mayoral primary in New York brought me unexpected joy.
That he could stand on a platform that overtly backed the Palestinian cause in a city with a significant Jewish population ( which traditionally overwhelmingly votes Democrat) and win a substantial majority over the machine politician, Cuomo, a former State governor, is all the more remarkable , but very uplifting.
My liberal friends in New York, living under the daily Trump yoke, are ecstatic. There is political light at the end of the tunnel. I remain optimistic .
“a radical leftie”
does this label have any meaning whatsoever?
I expect that Mamdani and e.g. the tories of the 1960s would have a large amount in common.
So much for labels.
Agreed
“The first is that the establishment, whether Republican or Democratic, is spooked.”
As they very well should be.
In Florida, the “average” voter is very unhappy with both the Democrats, the Republicans and the MAGAts.
Good. They should be.
Who will win? My bet is on the money winning. God forbid the people choose.
Zohran Mamdani has in done what many left wing politicians have failed to do in the 21st century. Set the tone and political agenda. He is got people to ask themselves what is “Abundance”? Rather than be dismissive of policy ideas we can’t afford because the state is too big and budget needs cutting.
I fear a repeat of the concentrated effort that went into defaming and defeating Jeremy Corbyn, when he likewise assembled a huge following that threatened the status quo.
@Phil Butler the money and the Zionist lobby did all they could to accuse him of antisemitism but fortunately none of it stuck. He is really articulate and was able to give clear and honest answers when challenged. With the genocide being perpetrated in Gaza this sort of attack is not having the same impact as happened to Jeremy Corbyn.
William Bramer, I agree that Jeremy Corbyn has come through the campaign against him, and his 7,000 majority as an independent MP, against a Labour sponsored candidate, shows that he is appreciated by his constituents. But the machinations against him lost him the general election (even though he got more votes than Starver did when he won his ‘landslide’)
You are right that the genocide in Gaza and widespread awareness and condemnation of it have changed the situation and we can hope that Corbyn will be involved in the emergence of an alternative party to the doom-laden Labour party. Likewise, Zoran Mandani holds up a beacon of hope for the Democrats. I just fear that massive forces will be deployed to discredit him, one way or another.
On a lighter note, I saw that Mamdani is an Arsenal supporter.
But then so is Starmer.
Jeremy Corbyn and Piers Morgan are also Arsenal supporters. As, I believe, was Bob Maxwell, who once claimed in an interview he was a very good footballer. “What position” asked the journalist “captain” Maxwell replied.
Not entirely sure what football allegiance has to do with anything, to be fair.
Agreed
Ben Davis’ analysis here:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/26/zohran-mamdani-political-earthquake
suggests that –
“The left has long shirked its responsibility to fight the far right, leaving it to the center as if the political spectrum were a rigorously enforced line rather than a fluid concept. But the center failed. And they sacrificed these demographics to Trump because these masses were fed up with the status quo. The center could never win them back. But the radical left actually could, through a targeted, economic, anti-establishment message. Mamdani’s campaign did it, and brought people back from the far right on a massive scale, more than any anti-Trump rally could. In this way, campaigns like Mamdani’s are actively practicing anti-fascism in a real way, by winning the targets of the Right back to the left.”
Davis explicitly identifies Mamdani’s politics as anti-fascist and that he brought back class as the defining issue of politics. “To defeat the right, the left must learn from Mamdani and rebuild mass working class organization. Sure, charisma helps, but at its core, this win was an eight-year project that must be replicated everywhere if we are to defeat fascism and stop the worst horrors of climate change.”
Much to agree with.