New York City is in real danger of electing as mayor a self-described, oxymoronic “democratic socialist” who is willing to bankrupt America’s biggest city to prove once again that Marxism doesn’t work. Zohran Mamdani, the Democrat nominee, plans to force landlords to freeze rent prices so that tenants don’t have to worry about their prices going up.
Kenny Burgos, head of the New York Apartment Association, pointed out to Newsweek that Mamdani is interfering in a process that, given time and a free market, would work itself out. “There’s rent-stabilized market and there’s the free market, where prices continue to increase as a result of the rent-stabilized market, because there’s less turnover, less supply coming online, all that,” according to Burgos. “All these properties [the rent-stabilized units] have the same costs [for landlords] when it comes to property taxes, insurance, water, sewer, labor, you name it, the costs are the same.” The free market allows for competition. Burgos says Mamdani’s communistic approach to solve the problem will “destroy the housing market in New York City.”
Landlords won’t have the funds to fix the problems that develop in their apartments, much less update them, because they can’t raise the rent to help cover costs. Ergo, apartments will either sit empty, or renters will pay a fixed price for crappy living quarters. Many landlords won’t be making money, and many renters will be living in squalor. Sounds like a lose-lose situation.
Combined with Mamdani’s plans for government-controlled supermarkets and other freebies, this radical candidate has caused quite a stir among The Big Apple’s wealthiest. Money is starting to flow against the Mamdani campaign. According to The Wall Street Journal, “A new independent expenditure group named ‘New Yorkers for a Better Future Mayor 25’ is launching a campaign against Mamdani, with at least $20 million, according to people familiar with the plans.”
Billionaire hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman and former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani are also gathering forces to fight against Mamdani. This effort is difficult, however, given that incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Walden are running as independents, and Curtis Sliwa is the Republican candidate. New York’s elite are not sure where to put their money.
Mamdani is more than just a shooting-star candidate. Should he be victorious this coming November in being elected as mayor of America’s largest city, it would open the door for Marxists in other cities and states to gain elected positions of power. Marxism is against everything we stand for as Americans. Still, it is the epitome of what the Democrat Party has become as it continues to push more and more to the left. Democrats have become the party that can only peddle in division and hate — a perfect breeding ground for the political ideology of greed and envy (a.k.a. Marxism).
Donald Trump has been outspoken about ridding Gotham of this serious threat. Earlier this month, the former New Yorker and real estate developer posted on his Truth Social account: “As President of the United States, I’m not going to let this Communist Lunatic destroy New York. Rest assured, I hold all the levers and have all the cards. I’ll save New York City, and make it ‘Hot’ and ‘Great’ again, just like I did with the Good Ol’ USA!”
Last week, Trump further discussed this troubling candidate in a cabinet meeting, declaring: “No. 1, you have a communist running, and you shouldn’t vote for him. He’s a disaster. He’s leading. He’s got the Democrat nomination because that shows you where the Democrats have gone. I’m not getting involved, but I can tell you this: I used to say we will not ever be a socialist country. Right. Well, I’ll say it again. We’re not going to have — if a communist gets elected to run New York, it can never be the same.” He went on to say that if Mamdani gets elected, he would have to behave, because the federal government holds the purse strings. Moreover, if Mamdani breaks the law, he’ll be arrested.
Mamdani immediately played the victim. “The President of the United States just threatened to have me arrested, stripped of my citizenship, put in a detention camp and deported,” he crowed. “Not because I have broken any law but because I will refuse to let ICE terrorize our city. His statements don’t just represent an attack on our democracy but an attempt to send a message to every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: if you speak up, they will come for you.”
Like all leftists, Mamdani is an expert at spinning common sense into leftist outrage. President Trump has probably realized, albeit a little belatedly, that his weighing in at all is fanning the TDS flames in Mamdani’s favor. Nevertheless, the bigger point still stands: New York City is likely going to have a Marxist as its mayor — and it’s going to get what it voted for, good and hard. Yet that doesn’t seem to make a difference to the Left (see Gavin Newsom’s California). Leftists only know how to go further left, and Mamdani is the essence of that truism. They can’t — or won’t — course correct, and it’s not only sad to watch but destructive for our nation.
