Copyright NBC 5 Chicago
In his first speech as the next mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani made clear he and his city are coming for President Donald Trump. "If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him," Mamdani said at his victory speech in Brooklyn Tuesday night. "And if there's any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power." "So Donald Trump," he added, "since I know you're watching — I have four words for you: Turn the volume up." The crowd responded with the raucous cheers that Mamdani no doubt hoped Trump would hear. "…AND SO IT BEGINS!" Trump posted on social media during the speech. No other Democratic candidate this year inspired more fear-mongering and national attention than the 34-year-old Mamdani, a Muslim immigrant and democratic socialist who will become the youngest mayor in a century to lead the largest city in the U.S. Mamdani tapped into a Democratic Party hungry for generational change, frustrated with establishment politicians holding onto power and desperate for backbone from their leaders. He ran on a platform of addressing concerns of working people, including the soaring costs of child care, transportation, housing and food. In his speech Tuesday night, Mamdani promised to deliver. The Republican Party has made clear that it will try to make Mamdani the face of the Democratic Party in the 2026 midterm elections — including in areas that are less liberal than New York. In a statement after Mamdani's win over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters labeled Mamdani's agenda as "radical." "His election is proof that the Democrat Party has abandoned common sense and tied themselves to extremism," he said. "Next year, Democrats will be held accountable by voters for embracing Mamdani’s far-left agenda and the consequences it will bring." Mamdani's speech set down an immediate marker of the type of relationship he will have with Trump, who has sent federal immigration agents and National Guard troops into major U.S. cities. He said New York will stand united against Trump and what he described as Trump-like figures going after working-class people. “We will hold bad landlords to account, because the Donald Trumps of our city have grown far too comfortable taking advantage of their tenants,” Mamdani said. “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, 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," he said. "So hear me, President Trump, when I say this: To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.” Mamdani quoted Eugene Debs, the popular socialist of the early 20th century, and promised to enact the “most ambitious agenda” since Great Depression-era New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, talking up his proposals for free buses, universal child care and a freeze on rent-stabilized buildings. “In this moment of political darkness," Mamdani said, "New York will be the light."
