What Are Zohran Mamdani's Flaws?

Have at it.

https://mamdanitimes.com/

Hasn't become mayor yet.

He gives off a short-guy vibe. But plenty of mayors are short. I think he'll be a good mayor of NYC, and everyone who hates him (thus far) is a gaping asshole. That can't be a coincidence.

sharp knees

Let's save this for when he becomes and Mayor and calls in the cops anyway...

I can’t wait for the titch-off when he meets Sadiq Khan.

NYC mayor's effectiveness, for better or worse, is reversely proportional to their height, so maybe that's for the best.

convinced his mom to not direct a harry potter film, potentially costing her life-changing money.

then again, he was probably playing 4d chess and already thinking about fending off nepo baby allegations

He's never once appeared nude.

November seems like a long ways off, but that isn’t his fault.

OR IS IT

😂

not my husband

Let's save this for when he becomes and Mayor and calls in the cops anyway...

This is the real answer — Mamdani's biggest flaw is that he's running for mayor of a gigantic city, and that job comes with built-in constraints. He will absolutely still use the police for a lot of things, even if he manages to create his Department of Community Safety and disband the protest-response squad (both of which he's promised). A lot of people want the cops to come when they call. You can argue that they shouldn't want that, but a lot of them do.

Also of course NYPD will try to make his life miserable. That's not a flaw, but it's a reality.

Textbook example being the full-fledged riot led by Rudy Giuliani against Dinkins.

Gives off a bit of a Lin Manuel Miranda vibe

too handsome.

max read had a quote in one of his recent newsletters about the police issue from a Matthew Guariglia:

THERE ARE A FEW LESSONS that Mamdani can learn from how the NYPD stymied de Blasio. People on the right are going to blast him for being soft on crime no matter what he does. But Mamdani has the ability to flip the script on them. Advocates of the status quo, unwilling to try innovative methods of community safety and crime prevention, are the ones who permit the persistence of crime. After all, the failed ways of “fighting crime” are about putting people in jail after committing crimes. A new public-safety paradigm centers on preventing it in the first place.
Mamdani can also emphasize officer well-being and workloads by creating agencies willing to take some of the “burden” away by taking on tasks armed police should not be doing in the first place. He can be proactive about copaganda: police will be eager to link crime to a progressive mayor even if they have to manufacture a “crime wave” to do it. The future mayor’s office should be constantly vocal about how low crime is, what the city is doing to make people feel safe and prevent crime, and should not be afraid to say when police are engaged in creating a politically-motivated narrative of fear.
Another lesson is for New Yorkers, not Mamdani. That's to refuse to panic.

I think making it a value proposition for the police is canny, but it's an uphill battle and this analysis is mostly right. It's not that left-wing policies are causing supposed crime waves, it's selective policing done in the purpose of discrediting a mayor that the police union views as their adversary. Maybe getting ahead of that helps, maybe it backfires and the PD demands you kiss the ring and continue giving them unlimited overtime pay. This problem isn't specific to large cities, and I feel like that levy has to break at some point.

if you just execute one cop in front of the rest of them theyll fall in line

They are scavenging his twitter and its truth nukes day and night back in the day.

The West is defined by its most powerful while the rest by our most vulnerable. This shit pisses me off.

— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) July 16, 2014

that's my guy

I want to marry him

will this doom his chances

https://t.co/SWOuKnn88O pic.twitter.com/ad7zvamviE

— Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) July 8, 2025

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:kypbxp7rhw7q2dfa4fr7f6i6/bafkreihscsqidkzsbrmzrlx3qpdg5ck2rqmcwyhe42ptxml4phzulzhvky@jpeg

tough out there

So weird!

So basically the problem is that they're are too many rock solid, logical reasons why people should vote for him and not one of the brazenly corrupt assholes that are running against him.

*there are

https://archive.ph/sYAOl

New Data for Progress poll:

Mamdani 40
Cuomo 24
Adams 15
Sliwa 14

https://www.filesforprogress.org/datasets/2025/7/dfp_nyc_mayoral_ge_traditional_crosstabs.pdf

Sickos.jpg

Even Trump’s team was smart enough to realize he had to co-opt RFK jr. in order not to split his vote.

not excited to see how low the Democratic Party is willing to go to sideline Mamdani

incredible opportunity to tee off on the very unpopular dem establishment send this nasty old man to hell

Cuomo said he would make affordability a cornerstone of his general-election campaign but would run on the notion that he will actually be able to make the city more affordable while Mamdani will only talk about it. “It’s about not just connecting with the perception of the problem. It’s finding the real solution and then having the ability to do it. You don’t want someone who just connects. That’s step one. What you really want is the problem-solver, and I can actually do that.”

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/nyc-mayor-race-andrew-cuomo-on-rematch-with-zohran-mamdani.html

No means no, amirite

A "No Means No, Andrew" campaign is a good thought. Instead of engaging with him directly, just brand him as a loser who also happens to be a sex pest.

The ads the Cuomo campaign used to recruit the actors used in the ad are already showing up on social media.

The Democratic Party always reminds me of Brecht’s joke after some East German apparatchik said the government had lost confidence in the people: “we should dissolve the people and elect another, then.”

When I was in Chicago, I tried to do a news story on Scott Waguespack for my school. This would've been my first time writing a political news story and he was running against Theodore Matlak, a complete waste of space hand-picked by Mayor Daley for the 32nd ward. These were both white males, but nonetheless the dynamic had strong similarities to Mamdani vs. Cuomo. A faculty member helping me out showed me how to look up campaign finances, and he immediately said "oh man, this poor guy's going to get creamed" when the data came up because Matlak had an enormous amount of money compared to Waguespack. Matlak was supposed to have a safe seat but this was a year when a lot of people had enough - Waguespack was clearly the grass roots upstart, so Daley's machine quickly put together the kind of campaign you're seeing with Cuomo, albeit circa 2007 (i.e. before technology re-shaped the tactics). I could go more into details but it was a sobering, thorough lesson in how unrepentantly corrupt local politics can be, in the way they operated and the way they campaigned. It wasn't even that sophisticated, so much of it was stupidly and blatantly dishonest, and the attitude was sort of "yeah, it's obvious, but it works." Anyway, I eventually went to Matlak's office, which had some of the nicest and sweetest people working there, all in their early 20's (visually not unlike Obama's campaign which was defined by youthful optimism) and I was naive to think "man, these people may actually believe in this guy and I'm actually working on a story about his blatant dishonesty." The "interview" turned out to be shit - after making cordial, pleasant conversation with the campaign manager, as soon as I started recording, she turned into a fucking robot and would only repeat pre-scripted lines trying to push the same false information they put out in a press release (that Waguespack was under investigation) and completely ignoring any question I asked. When I left, a campaign worked offered to give me a ride, and during our chat, it turned out everyone in that office was hired virtually overnight to work in that office - none of them had any personal connection to Matlak, they were all hired from a firm that just does these things. It was a stark contrast to people I spoke to campaigning for Waguespack who were clearly neighborhood locals who would be directly impacted by the election. The guy who told me this was just really green about what he was doing - he was still figuring out what to do after college and took this job with the firm to make some money in the interim. (FWIW, the investigation scam worked like this: Matlak had strong ties to someone on Berwyn's city council, and Waguepsack had been the city administrator and chief of staff to Berwyn. To open an investigation, or really initiate a process to determine whether an investigation was needed, the council just needs one person to put that motion forward, not vote or explanation needed - you can guess who put that motion forward. When I asked him for more details, he went into ridiculous circles, and I just flat out said, "tbh, it doesn't sound like there's anything going on here" to which he replied with a straight face "that's why we need an investigation!")

The happy ending I didn't expect: Waguespack won, by a measly 121 votes, a reflection of how bad things were for Daley that year, relatively speaking. Waguespack's still there today and still the guy you expect him to be - he was actually one of the very few people who vote against that shitty parking deal that was Daley's parting shot to the city.

*no vote or explanation needed

Should add one important detail: I never got the story published because I couldn't get an interview with Waguespack's campaign, even though the story was clearly in their favor. I'm guessing it was because they had a small operation that was stretched very thin (again, they had very little money compared to Matlak's campaign) and granting an interview with a school newspaper wasn't considered a good use of their time, but it was frustrating as hell. They kept referring to a statement they already put out a week prior, thinking that was enough - I think I got only 2, maybe 3 emails from them and they amounted to one sentence each - but I kept explaining it wasn't.

Reminds me of the infamous phrase "We don't want nobody nobody sent".

incredible opportunity to tee off on the very unpopular dem establishment send this nasty old man to hell

Cuomo said he would make affordability a cornerstone of his general-election campaign but would run on the notion that he will actually be able to make the city more affordable while Mamdani will only talk about it. “It’s about not just connecting with the perception of the problem. It’s finding the real solution and then having the ability to do it. You don’t want someone who just connects. That’s step one. What you really want is the problem-solver, and I can actually do that.”

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/nyc-mayor-race-andrew-cuomo-on-rematch-with-zohran-mamdani.html🕸

realized i omitted the punchline

So what would he do on housing affordability? “There is no real answer,” he said.

A Reformer with Results

....bad ones!

our lad is on it have no fear

https://bsky.app/profile/zohrankmamdani.bsky.social/post/3ltz2bot2pc2u

My brother's union endorsed him today.

If you have IG, you can see him in this story with the hat and orange glasses.

https://www.instagram.com/stories/dc37nyc/3677482450139167667

https://i.imgur.com/DyxcBqQ.png

By the time I saw that, the parenthetical had been changed to "if You Want a Foil for Republicans." And I was like, "sure, sounds good!" Had to read the article to see that Stephens thought it was a bad thing.

if you wanna help Republicans
gotta hang with Zohran
make it last forever
friendship never ends

the newspaper thing seems p clever to me. i think even achieving the tiniest amount of change for the public good often requires this kind of behaviour and manoeuvring. it shows political talent in the way you'd want from a local politician.

I don’t know the details enough but don’t think “classic NIMBY” is accurate here. There are reasons AOC, Gianaris, Van Bramer etc had concerns the last time around and Won now. These are not politicians I’d associate with NIMBY attitudes. I haven’t read enough to really know though.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/09/nyc-mamdani-explosive-device-terrorism

PA kids

Feels like a story where we’ll find out in six years that a FBI handler gave the lead kid plans and an idea.

otm

what's goin on with zohran now?

legacy media continuing to call him an antisemite and a radical islamist other that nothing exciting and it’s dope

saw him sink a sick basketball shot this morning

he should play horse with Bernie for charity

what's goin on with zohran now?

the left is basically saying that he is capitulating to Zionists fwiw.

Needs to cover up his wife’s navel, I hear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybUqM8jf3mU

Mr Mamdani in 2014 your alleged wife reposted an image on Tumblr with the caption "My idols are dead and my enemies are in power" with what appears to be a woman holding a cigarette.

— Don Hughes (@getfiscal) March 19, 2026

alleged wife

That's what ended me.

Don Hughes is one of the best

“zohran’s wife tweeted bad stuff at age 15” ok have you seen what the president of the United States is currently tweeting at age 79

— trash jones (@jzux) March 21, 2026

boring!

Mamdani, 34, is famously enamored of hip hop, having even tried − very unsuccessfully − to make it as a rapper himself, so it comes as no surprise that writer Jose Vilson asked him in an interview to name his top five rappers of all-time.

And the new mayor's choices were almost as unsurprising: four widely revered legends who rose to fame in the 1990s − Nas, Common, Jay-Z, and the Notorious B.I.G., better known as Biggie − and one almost as prominent from the 2000s, Lupe Fiasco.

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DWAxpW0imQR/

BREAKING: New Yorker loves New York rap. (And, for some reason, Lupe Fiasco.)

he should have named Vordul

Smoothe da Hustler for cred

And, for some reason, Lupe Fiasco

He was 14 when Lupe's first album came out. And being into both Lupe and Common (also from Chicago) makes sense. Bet he was a Kanye guy as a kid, too, but you can't say that now.

no problematic faves for the mayor, sad

Not parody, I don't think:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/03/19/zohran-mamdani-nyc-mayor-top-rappers/

problematic centrism, friends

138,683 Serious, Earnest Americans Emphasize Demand for Prepar (President Keyes) at 11:05 21 Mar 26

Smoothe da Hustler for cred

"Broken Language" is perhaps the greatest song of all time

Not parody, I don't think:

404’d

oh shit, they took it down, lol

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/03/19/zohran-mamdani-nyc-mayor-top-rappers/89230986007/

lol

https://i.postimg.cc/T1jTqbK8/IMG-7357.jpg

Lol HE CHOSE THE CENTRIST RAP OPTIONS

Centrist would been picking Biggie and Tupac.

tupac on that list wouldve made it way better and more interesting low bar but still

V nice.

Government must deliver for working people—and every dollar in our budget should work as hard as they do.

That’s why I directed every agency to cut waste and help close our budget gap.

Here’s some of what we found. pic.twitter.com/wFOxj4zTcg

— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) March 25, 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ggs8yTQjE4

Filming a mukbang video.

With a Das Racist reference at the beginning (I know he was really into them).

if mamdami really wants to be the peoples mayor hell get nyc real basketball rims

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:nx7znvoex7ev3wcxn3tipovm/bafkreihdi24bqeeahr5nqefndurfmuqch24jcu4avx3g4354j2d6dpvrbi

https://w42st.com/post/new-york-city-parks-basketball-hoops-blacksmiths/

yeah the park dept making their own rims is just a baffling and evil practice

theyre like these rims are pretty shitty theyre just one extremely solid piece that will violently reject any ball that touches them but i feel like they could be worse what about if they were incapable of holding nets that should accomplish our goal of producing the worst rim in the world which makes sense since playing ball in the park is prob more popular in ny than anywhere else in the world

if i were mayor i would initiate a task force to find a technological solution to playground nets being torn down

lasers and electrification would be on the table

the nets are not torn down the rims literally cannot accommodate them they have no loops from which to hang

I haven't played on one of those in ages but I think at least some can accommodate nets? that pic you posted looks like there's little bumps where the net would go. that said real hoopers are forged in such environments

when i lived in ft greene sometimes they would have lil tournaments at the courts there and they had to tape the nets up, sad

saw an amazing brawl there once spectators players refs everyone getting in on the melee

which interview will happen first: 60 minutes or hot ones?

can't imagine why he'd ever go on 60 minutes, so

He just did a YT sitdown-and-eat with Action Bronson

This convo made me look up how many NBA players are from NYC and it's way less than I would've thought given the cultural importance of basketball there

prototypical nyc player shifty guard who cant shoot, grew up playing on rims with no nets, makes you think