According to a dozen elected officials, New York powerbrokers, supporters and experts interviewed this week by POLITICO Magazine, the road ahead will be no less difficult to navigate than the unlikely path that took Mamdani from a political nobody to the first Muslim leader of one of the world’s greatest cities.
Here are the top obstacles Mamdani will need to overcome to make the critical first few months of his mayoralty a success.
1. Donald Trump and the Federal Government
Chief among the challenges Mamdani will face, New York insiders said, is President Donald Trump.
“Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump,” said Patrick Gaspard, a senior national Democrat who has been advising Mamdani. Trump and his team have threatened to withdraw federal funding from the city — other than “the very minimum as required,” per a Truth Social post — in addition to endangering specific infrastructure projects like the Second Avenue Subway. His administration has also railed about flooding New York with troops and immigration agents, an escalation of the deployments he sent to places like Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland. “That would have been a hyperbolic thing to consider,” said Gaspard, “but that’s a real threat starting the moment that Zohran wins.”
Even as Mamdani was celebrating on Tuesday, Trump
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