On a brisk Tuesday evening in New York City, with sirens blaring and bright lights illuminating the black sky, celebratory cheers could be heard just after 9 pm, as it became clear Zohran Mamdani had won the mayoral race. The world’s most renowned city had a resoundingly new leader.
Zohran Kwame Mamdani. Mayor Mamdani. Let that sink in.
Meanwhile, on X, right-wing influencer reactions ranged from rage to racism, or a combination of both. It was the second coming of the Third Reich. The onset of an Islamic State. The Sovietization of Wall Street. Or all of the above.
But it was clear that this sponsored messaging, which had reached a fever pitch before the election, had failed. And the loss was not just a defeat. It was an obliteration. In New York. In New Jersey. In Virginia. And across ballot measures nationwide. Mamdani’s victory represents the beginning of a bulwark against Trump 2.5.
It is the start of a Manhattan Project to save the Left in America.
From Woke Evangelism for Empire to Populism
The projection onto Zohran Mamdani of labels of terrorism was flimsy to begin with. It was a ham-fisted attempt to galvanize Jewish New Yorkers and perhaps others into voting against a perceived threat. Yet, it had the converse effect. It only reinforced the message that Mamdani was a populist. And Generation Z, most of whom grew up in the shadow of the War on Terror rather than the 9/11 attacks, saw in the messengers everything they hated about the establishment.
‘Free Palestine’ itself has become an anti-system battle cry over the last two years. While the October 7 attacks provoked outrage initially, by the time of this mayoral election, more Americans had become more outraged about the response to those attacks. Even young Jewish Americans decidedly backed Mamdani.
The more the well-funded online campaign and crudely put-together coalition attacked Mamdani for not being in lockstep with a neoconservative foreign policy, the more he came across as bucking the system. The same system that keeps rents high. The same system that is broken. The same system presided over by boomers.
While the Biden Administration and its aspiring successor in the Kamala campaign represented woke evangelism for empire, Mamdani and his acolytes represent woke populists against empire. And that is a message that resonates. In that sense, they echo aspects of the MAGA movement.
A Vibe Shift Within the Vibe Shift
In an earlier article last year, I wrote “There’s a Vibe Shift in the Empire” following the election of Donald Trump:
“The anti-government feeling of the shift also leads to rejecting all establishment directives, whether from academia, experts, or the media. Why should there be censorship of misinformation? For Generation Z, which freely streams content, why would the government or an ‘expert’ limit what they can say? The vibe shift of the current moment ironically very much echoes the 1970s. It dovetails, however, with the vibe shift of the 1950s, marrying ‘fighting the man’ with the promise of a ‘new American dream.”
The MAGA spin on this was to restore a sense of traditionalism while also taking on a capitalist bent. Due to the prevailing environment of ‘wokeism,’ MAGA appeared to represent the anti-orthodoxy. Yet, in the first 10 months of the Trump administration, it has focused endlessly on antisemitism, replacing one form of speech monitoring with another, including on the right. The administration has also sued countless media outlets for defamation, leading to repercussions, including for flailing late-night talk show hosts like Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert. Perhaps it was good political fodder for the base, but it played against the vibe shift for free speech.
Meanwhile, as the cost of living has risen, health costs have skyrocketed, and unemployment has ticked up, the White House has simply rolled out announcement after announcement of ‘billion-dollar’ deals with billionaire magnates and trillion-dollar global funds. This left the vibe shift up for grabs.
During the campaign, Trump convened a big-tent coalition that brought together all the leading podcasters popular with Gen Z, from Theo Von to Joe Rogan to Adin Ross to Andrew Shultz. The outright racism online unleashed over the last several months has slowly hollowed out support to just core advocates. One by one, prior supporters have expressed unease with the current administration.
Then, out of nowhere, riding the N train, came Zohran Mamdani, smiling, showing up at the club at 1 am. Quite obviously, he was cool, and his opponent, Cuomo, decidedly uncool. And he was ‘for you’. For the ‘forgotten man’. The taxi driver. The halal cart worker. The street micro-entrepreneur. Shultz even gushed over Mamdani.
MAGA Gets Conned Inc
What happened to the MAGA Movement? Ultimately, the GOP without Trump is a failed party. Trumpism is not Republicanism. In the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races, the Republican candidates were Never Trumpers. In 2022, the Republican Party was trounced in the midterms.
Yet there is no real MAGA movement. It is a coalition that only Trump could preside over, bringing technologists like Elon Musk, populists like Stephen Bannon, Gen Z podcasters, evangelicals, Dearborn’s Arab Americans, and hardline pro-Israel Jews in New York into one big, big tent. President Trump, however, has not governed like candidate Trump.
Accordingly, the technologists are fighting with the populists. Generation Z got bored and then perturbed. The pro-Israel camp has cast aspersions on the Arab Americans. And Trump himself has spent too time focused abroad. An America First administration, seen as an America Abroad presidency, was destined to suffer in popularity.
The Trump White House has also engendered a perception that it is a get-rich-quick platform for the billionaire class. Trump did not take union leaders to Riyadh for his landmark investment forum. He took magnates Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, and other technologists who had opposed him politically. His political advisors did not set up meeting grounds for the forgotten men and women of America in Washington. Instead, his donors set up the ‘Executive Branch’ for confabs of capital.
Entrenched interests have wrested the administration’s agenda, ensuring that the focus is on stock market highs, bellicose rhetoric about empire, and culture wars. It is the playbook of a Republican Party that was already in deep decline for years.
Results over Resistance
“[Resistance to Trump 2.5] will succeed only if it produces demonstrable results… While the Democratic Party is out of power at the federal level, 23 states have Democratic governors. In addition, America’s three largest cities, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, have Democratic mayors. If, over the next two years, a consolidated coalition of stakeholders, political and otherwise, brings together philanthropists, the private sector, and non-profits to showcase a counter-model of success in these states and cities, it will resonate with voters. This would present a problem for the Trump 2.5 agenda.”
p. 170, “The Way Forward” | Trump 2.5: A Primer
Before his victory, Mamdani stood relatively alone, with tepid endorsements even from his own party. On November 5, he has the wind in his sails. Nothing attracts losers like winning. Even Bill Ackman pledged to work with Mayor Mamdani.
Mamdani’s victory is not just about a Muslim immigrant success story. It will constitute a Manhattan Project to build the resistance to Trumpism in earnest. And as such, many people will flock to sit under this new political umbrella, much as happened with President Trump on January 20, 2025. The aim will be to co-opt the moment to create campaigns and coherence for a national effort, with New York as the testing and meeting ground.
Nevertheless, Zohran Mamdani is not the flip side of Donald Trump. And his movement is not ‘bizarro’ MAGA. Nor is his victory just another act in the long-running theater of right-left politics. His triumph is an opening for something new. In that way, the oldest rule in politics becomes the most important to note: there are no rules.
As Zohran Mamdani awakens to a city that is now his to lead, he can move in whatever direction he chooses. Of course, his opponents will still project labels onto him. But it will be those who claim credit for his victory that will attempt to pigeonhole him and his policies the hardest, sometimes to his detriment. And others onside, who seek to leverage his victory for political gain, will be even harder to keep at bay.
For Mayor Mamdani and those who support him, what will speak volumes will be the results. Results will lead to success and more winning. Can Mamdani balance capital with conscience to bring about more affordability? Can he marry an abundance mindset with a disposition towards empathy for the downtrodden to foster social balance? Can he re-empower police in communities to become symbols of safety that reinforce law and order?
Can he rise to the occasion to become a leader for all tribes and classes in the new American era?
Tomorrow is Another Day
Today is a day that belongs to the winner. To the new mayor of New York City. Zohran Kwame Mamdani.
But tomorrow is another day.
Politics, especially now, rewards dynamism and adaptability, with constituencies and coalitions reshuffling overnight. As momentous as Mamdani’s win is, it will also come and go. The world is changing at breakneck speed, and that will not let up, regardless of political events. In six months, new crises will emerge, as will new opportunities.
As the vibe shift in the vibe shift begins, Mamdani’s Manhattan Project will follow one of two paths: one that creates and becomes a source of energy for a new America. Or another that destroys and erodes the potential for renewed promise and a united country.
It is a monumental challenge that now sits on the shoulders of the youngest leader of the world’s leading city in 133 years.