Brief | Trouble for Trump: Mamdani Wins NYC
- Sofia Sayuri Marcon
- 27 minutes ago
- 8 min read
Trump’s worst nightmare, and maybe a new beginning for the Democratic Party
On November 4th, New Yorkers elected Zohran Mamdani as their new mayor. In a city known for low turnout, Mamdani, a 34-year-old lawmaker, inspired more voters since the 1960s. He won in a landslide with 1,036,051 votes, overcoming Andrew Cuomo’s efforts to attract Republican voters.
Mamdani, a proud democratic socialist, campaigned with a guarantee to change the social contract between the government and its citizens, promising his supporters striking reforms on taxes, housing, and a city-wide fight against President Donald Trump. His bold platform has shaken both the republican and democratic parties, drawing criticism from all sides. Part of Mamdani’s success and popularity among young voters was his authenticity on social media and bold opposition against Trump.
This victory could mark a turning point for the Democratic Party; the presidential election saw low youth turnout, whereas this one mobilized young voters. Mamdani’s use of social media won hearts and mobilized discouraged voters back to the polls, marking progress Democrats have sought since their 2024 defeat.
Mamdani’s affordability message resonated with voters, especially the working class. He promises a rent freeze, fare-free buses, and a fight against negligent landlords. Issues which struck at the heart of the affordability crisis affecting major cities across the world in general and NYC in particular. Mamdani won the heart of 4 out of the 5 boroughs, losing only Staten Island. With a notable 50.4% of votes, Mamdani triumphed over Cuomo’s 41.6% and Sliwa’s 7.1%, a +8.8-point margin and over 1.03 million votes on his line. These numbers show a true majority, not just a plurality. But the loss of Staten Island, with a strong 55% for Cuomo, signals resistance among outer-borough homeowners against the tax and housing reforms proposed by Mamdani.
New York City is the most expensive city in the United States. The high cost of housing is one of the greatest issues for citizens, as the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan (data collected in November 2025) is around $4,800, a 20% increase since 2022. Mamdani’s rent freeze plan would involve fixing rents for all stabilized tenants and using all available resources to build new housing and to ultimately decrease rent. “This is a city where one in four of its people are living in poverty, a city where 500,000 kids go to sleep hungry every night,” Mamdani told the BBC. His goal is to reconstruct the previous mayor, Eric Adams’s, actions with the Rent Guidelines Board, where Adams had increased the rent every year since he was elected. Though there is great speculation on the economic effectiveness of this plan and whether it has the capacity to ‘destroy’ the city.
Mamdani plans to create new affordable housing. For decades, NYC has relied on changing zone codes to entice private development, and almost all new housing built is out of reach for those who truly need it. Today, NYC has its highest level of homelessness since the Great Depression of the 1930s, where more than half of all households are rent-burdened. Mamdani states that NYC cannot wait for the private sector to solve the crisis; his goal is to triple the city’s production of “publicly subsidized, permanently affordable, union-built, rent-stabilized homes” and to construct 200,000 new units over the next ten years.
The funding for Mamdani's housing policies is not so clearly stated. He plans to prioritize public-sector development, aiming to ensure more new units are affordable for low-income families or those staying in city shelters. To expand programs like Housing Preservation and Development’s (HPD)Senior Affordable Rental Apartments, HPD's Extremely Low and Low-Income Affordability, and the HRA's Master Lease Program, Mamdani proposes allocating $70 billion in new capital to the city's 10-year capital plan, in addition to the $30 billion already planned. These funds are to be raised primarily through the issuance of municipal bonds. He also intends to activate city-owned land and buildings as sources of subsidy. Additionally, Mamdani proposes funding and staffing of city housing agencies, which he notes were neglected by the previous mayor, and increasing staffing in construction and project management for faster progress. He anticipates that operating costs, land acquisition, and construction will be covered through the public funds, bond issuance, and proceeds from the use of public land.
Mamdani is determined to create a Department of Community Safety to address gaps in programs and services, and reduce the NYPD’s workload. Its primary mission is the pre-emptive prevention of violence by taking a public health approach to safety. Its focuses include: investing in citywide mental health education and services, improving subway and street safety, reducing homelessness, expanding gun violence prevention, addressing hate violence, supporting victims, and more. The planned Department of Community Safety budget is $1.1 billion, including approximately $605 million in transfers of existing programs into the DCS and $445 million of new funding needs.
Transit is another core issue for Mamdani. He states that “public transit should be reliable, safe, and universally accessible.” As he states on his policy goals, one in five New Yorkers struggles to afford the rising fares. Also, NYC buses are the slowest in the nation. His plan to combat these issues is to permanently eliminate fares on all city buses, create priority lanes, create loading zones to keep double parkers from taking bus spots, and expand bus queue-jump signals to make them faster and more affordable.
To help New Yorkers afford the rising costs of the city, Mamdani plans to raise the minimum wage to $30 by 2030. It will increase automatically according to increases in the cost of living and productivity. As he states, “when people have more money in their pocket, the whole economy thrives.”
The final, yet most controversial policy he aims to introduce is "Trump-Proofing NYC.” He has a multitude of goals to ‘fight’ against the Trump presidency.
His first ambition in this sector is the protection of immigrant citizens in New York, where he plans to eradicate the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) influence from all city facilities and end all cooperation between the state and this organization. He plans to create sanctuary laws, including support for undocumented individuals from public service organizations, especially the police force. He states that these ambitious proposals will help reduce crime rates, as stated in his policy goals, that “35.5 fewer crimes are committed per 10,000 people in sanctuary cities.” Another policy goal Mamdani has on the topic of protecting immigrant New Yorkers is the fostering of legal support by increasing funding for immigration legal services to provide representation for people and communities targeted by mass deportation. Data shows that counsel for underrepresented individuals makes a significant difference: 74% of non-detained immigrants with lawyers win their cases versus the 13% who don’t have access to legal aid.
The next topic on Mamdani’s fight against Trump is the fight against the president’s cuts to vital New York structural services. His first method of combat is to tax the wealthiest corporations at the same rate as New Jersey, by achieving 11.5% tax on corporate profits. This will generate 5 billion dollars of new revenue each year. Additionally, he plans to increase the tax on the wealthiest 1% an additional 2% tax per year, which would generate 4 billion dollars in new revenue each year. Mamdani also plans to hire more Department of Finance staff to enforce tax laws and collect on the nearly $2.1 billion in unpaid fines, with almost $800 million coming from negligent landlords.
Mamdani got to work right away. He emphasizes the urgency of preparing for his taking office on January 1st. “We owe it to this city to be ready on 1 January to start delivering,” he said on November 5th. “We have 57 days, and those are 57 days to start to do the work of preparing.” Promptly, Mamdani created his transition team to help enact what he calls the city’s most ambitious policy platform in a generation.
This team is fully female, led by Elana Leopold as the executive director, and the co-chairs are Maria Torres-Springer, a former first deputy mayor; Lina Khan, the former Federal Trade Commission chair; Grace Bonilla, the United Way’s president and CEO; and Melanie Hartzog, the former deputy mayor for health. “In the coming months, I and my team will build a city hall capable of delivering on the promises of this campaign,” Mamdani told reporters. “We will form an administration that is equal parts capable and compassionate, driven by integrity and willing to work just as hard as the millions of New Yorkers who call this city home.” The choice of Lina Khan, a prominent ally of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, indicates the extent to which Mamdani and his incoming administration will be pursuing his policy platform of taxes and affordability politics. “I’m confident in delivering these same policies that we ran on for the last year,” Mamdani states, adding that he aims to unite New Yorkers across political divides. “No matter what your politics, we’re all facing the same issues.” Addressing the immediate priority to prepare for his ambitious affordability agenda. Mamdani’s incoming administration faces many obstacles, particularly from Donald Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to withhold federal funding from the city. He often labels the democratic socialist a “communist”.
Zohran Mamdani’s election marks not only a political shift in NYC but a test on whether the city is ready to embrace a strong, redistributive vision of governance. His agenda, rooted in affordability, equity and defiance of federal conservatism, reflects both the goals and concerns of the city. As Mamdani prepares to take office, the success of his administration will depend on his ability to turn ambitious promises into tangible results while navigating resistance from the Trump administration. Whether his tenure ushers in a new era of progressive urban policy or becomes a cautionary tale for the American left, one thing is certain: New York, once again, will be the stage where the nation’s political future is tested.
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