Is Donald Trump afraid of Zohran Mamdani?
This week we’re chatting with two journalists who have followed Mamdani’s campaigns since 2020: Ted Hamm, whose new book Run Zohran Run! looks inside Zohran Mamdani’s sensational campaign to become New York City’s first Democratic Socialist mayor, and Liza Featherstone, a journalist at Jacobin who focuses on student and labor activism.
We hear their takes on why Trump and the establishment are getting nervous about the rise of Mamdani, and why this could harvest success in November’s election, but also danger and threats from both Democrats and Republicans for the young mayor candidate.
Here is an excerpt of their take. Subscribe to hear Ted and Liza’s full analysis of the NYC mayor race and its national implications:
I'm pretty optimistic that a lot of the attacks on Zoran and the failure of the Democratic leadership to stand up for him and get behind him, even though he is overwhelmingly the Democratic nominee, in many ways actually help him. Just because I think that people are mad.
And the crazy attacks by the Trump administration on Zoran worry me a lot because they could just arrest him and send him to El Salvador.
And so I'm honestly more concerned about that in some ways than the election. Because I think their threats to deport him are so outrageous. The things they say about him are so appallingly racist. This is New York City! I think people are really offended by all of that. But great instincts of a body or a population can exist, they just have to be organized into being.
This great consensus behind Zoran has been organized into being, and I think it's going to be really hard for them to stop it.
Subscribe to hear the full interview where Liza and Ted discuss whether Cuomo even wants to be NYC Mayor, proof of how the NY Post manufactures outrage against Zohran, and if a Mayor Mamdani could have any real success making New York affordable with government-run grocery stores and rent freezes.
Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Aaron Maté & Katie Halper Demand Meeting with “Fraudfather” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt
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