TOI correspondent from Washington: US President Donald Trump unloaded on putative New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday, calling him a “communist lunatic,” as US political pundits across the spectrum tried to make sense of how the second largest Jewish city in the world voted for a Muslim socialist of Indian-origin. “It’s finally happened, the Democrats have crossed the line… We’ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous,” Trump raged online, while acknowledging “this is a big moment in the History of our Country!”The MAGA supremo also went personal on the 33-year old Indian-Ugandan immigrant who trumped the US establishment to win leadership of the richest city in the world, saying, “he looks TERRIBLE, his voice is grating, he’s not very smart.”Trump clubbed Mamdani with other liberal-progressive female lawmakers of non-white heritage like Jasmine Crockett (black), Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (Latina), Pramila Jayapal (Indian), Rashida Tlaib (Palestinian) and Ilhan Omar (Somali), snarkily suggesting they could lead the Democratic campaign in the 2028 presidential elections. “Added together with our future Communist Mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, and our Country is really SCREWED!” the US President said, implicitly suggesting colored immigrants are taking over America. A banner headline in the pro-MAGA city tabloid New York Post following Mamdani’s win in the primaries, which virtually ensures he will be the next mayor, screamed “RED ALERT!”Trump’s immigration czar Stephen Miller was rather more direct in blaming immigration for Mamdani’s victory, saying it is the “clearest warning yet of what happens to a society when it fails to control migration.”Although early analysis showed that Mamdani had overwhelming support from white, college-educated voters and even many liberal and moderate Jewish voters opposed to Israeli action in Gaza, Miller argued that “unchecked migration fundamentally remade the NYC electorate…That’s how you turn a city that defined US dominance into what it is now.”“To understand the pace and scope of migration to America in past years, one-third of NYC is foreign-born and almost two-thirds of NYC children live in a foreign-born household,” Miller said about a city that has always been diverse, plural, and has welcomed immigrants from all over the world.On cue, Trump’s MAGA minions attacked Mamdani, accusing him of being a “Hamas sympathiser” and associating him with 9/11, which took place when he was eight years old. When a MAGA activist lamented that New York City has “endured 9/11 instead of voting for it,” Trump’s son Don Jr, responded “New York has fallen” But rather than fallen, the US commentariat opined that NYC has risen and repudiated the MAGA vision of white dominance, electing a immigrant Muslim socialist in a metropolis that has more than 2 million Jews, the most in any city after Tel Aviv.
