The Right Can’t Figure Out What to Do With Zohran Mamdani
Between President Trump heaping praise on Zohran Mamdani and the GOP-led Congress denouncing socialism, yesterday revealed a capitalist opposition throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.
On the same day Congress denounced socialism, Trump emerged from meeting Zohran Mamdani gushing about the mayor-elect. The contradictory reactions suggest a mad scramble to respond to his undeniable popularity. (Andrew Harnik / Getty Images)
In Zohran Mamdani’s victory speech two weeks ago, he said:
The conventional wisdom would tell you that I am far from the perfect candidate. I am young, despite my best efforts to grow older. I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.
The unmistakable charisma and undeniable popularity of the democratic socialist up-and-comer have caused a flurry of contradictory reactions from opponents. On the one hand you had Donald Trump, who stands in diametric opposition to Mamdani’s politics on nearly every issue, slapping Mamdani with a seal of approval after the two met privately at the White House. On the other, you had the GOP-led Congress passing a nonbinding resolution, H.Con.Res.58, “Denouncing the horrors of socialism.”
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