Zohran Mamdani on his bold agenda, tackling Islamophobia and working with Trump

William Brangham:

As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan comes to a close, Amna Nawaz traveled to New York City to talk to one of the most high-profile Muslim leaders in one of the most high-pressure political jobs in the country.

Zohran Mamdani is less than three months into his term as mayor of America's biggest city. He's juggling how to fulfill his ambitious campaign promises, manage a huge budget deficit, and respond to a rise in Islamophobic rhetoric across the country.

The young Democratic socialist has also forged a unique relationship with President Trump through Oval Office visits and their shared love of New York City.

Here's Amna's exclusive conversation with Mayor Mamdani.

Amna Nawaz:

Mr. Mayor, welcome to the "News Hour." Thanks for making the time.

Zohran Mamdani (D), Mayor of New York City: Absolutely. Thank you so much for being here.

Amna Nawaz:

So let's talk a little bit about your first few months in office. You really had to hit the ground running. You had a lot coming at you too. You had a major nurses strike to handle, a record-breaking snowstorm.

I know you have probably heard the difference between campaigning in poetry, governing in prose. Does that bring true to you? Have you found that to be true?

Zohran Mamdani:

I think there's still a little poetry in the day-to-day.

Amna Nawaz:

OK.

Zohran Mamdani:

I think it's important that we don't let our imagination become constrained by what we are inheriting.

And in some ways we tasked ourselves with trying to keep up with New Yorkers, because, in addition to first winter storm in a while, first blizzard in 10 years, nurses strike, where we stood there on the picket line with the nurses as they fought for wages that could afford to have to live in New York City as they worked in New York City, we also just wanted to show New Yorkers that city government could work as fast as they do.

Amna Nawaz:

What's surprised you most about the role since you have stepped into it?

Zohran Mamdani:

I think the amount that you can do, to be honest with you. It's not to say that this work is easy, but that when you are willing, there is an immense amount of possibility.

And then, on day eight, we joined together with Governor Hochul to announce a $1.2 billion funding of a pathway to universal childcare. And that's transformative for New York City families. And to have the opportunity to be able to act upon the vision that we'd shared with New Yorkers, it's the gift of a lifetime.

Amna Nawaz:

You also very early held a press conference in which you shared that you would inherited a major budget deficit, some $12 billion. Tell me -- and you have repeated it actually since then in multiple interviews I know you want to get that message out.

Is that a little bit about expectation setting? Like, you might not be able to hit all of the affordability goals that you set out?

Zohran Mamdani:

We just want to be honest and transparent with New Yorkers. We're talking about a generational fiscal deficit, as you said, inheriting what was $12 billion.

And thanks to the work that we have done in terms of savings, in terms of utilizing our reserves, we have brought that down to $5.4 billion, also in partnership with the governor's commitment to this city. And now, over these next few weeks and months, our job is to bring that down to zero.

Amna Nawaz:

What's the plan to bring it down to zero? You have to raise revenue.

Zohran Mamdani:

We believe that a structural crisis deserves structural solutions. And that comes from taxing the wealthiest a little bit more and also ensuring that the relationship between the city and the state isn't as imbalanced as it's been in the past.

Amna Nawaz:

Following up on a campaign promise, you said you were going to create a Department of Community Safety with a billion-dollar budget. What you announced this week, I think it's fair to describe, is a pared-down version.

So is this part of this paring down of ambitions because of the budget crisis? How should we look at this?

Zohran Mamdani:

Our ambitions will never be pared down.

Amna Nawaz:

Okay.

Zohran Mamdani:

This is the beginning of what it looks like to fulfill that promise. It's the start.

However, New Yorkers can't afford to wait for an answer to the mental health crisis. They can't afford to wait for a legislative process to play out or for politics to come its course. What this is all about is responding to the crises, whether it's the mental health crisis, the crisis of gun violence, the crisis of hate violence, even gender-based violence in the city.

We are finally co-hearing what were previously disparate offices, putting them within one portfolio of work within city government, and starting to respond to them in a manner that actually befits the seriousness of the issue.

Amna Nawaz:

So, Mr. Mayor, we are speaking on the last day of Ramadan. And as the first Muslim mayor of New York City, you, I understand, have been fasting this entire time as you are governing in this very demanding environment.

Just give me a sense of what your days have been like.

Zohran Mamdani:

Well, in many ways, the days look as they did before. There's obviously an absence of food and water over the course of them. This may be the first time they're seeing a Muslim in public office during the month of Ramadan and all that comes with it.

For me, I am seeing so many Muslims who've been here far longer than I have who've been doing this work, and they have been doing it no matter what the demand is.

Amna Nawaz:

You also chose to break your fast one day out on Rikers Island. Tell me about that. Why?

Zohran Mamdani:

It was one of the most meaningful evenings I have had as the mayor.

And to be on Rikers Island praying alongside incarcerated New Yorkers, as well as New Yorkers who work on Rikers Island, it was really an occasion to recognize the humanity in others and also, in doing so, recognize more of it in ourselves.

Amna Nawaz:

It's worth noting too, though, in your first few months in office, you have already seen anti-Muslim protesters outside your home, not protesting your policies or anything else, protesting your faith outside of the place that you live.

You have been the target of attacks by lawmakers, calling for you to be denaturalized and deported. Representative Andy Ogles has said Muslims don't belong in American society. Representative Randy Fine said we need more Islamophobia, not less. Representative Andrew Clyde said no more Islamic immigration.

I think anyone who grew up post-9/11 knows that anti-Muslim bigotry isn't anything new here, but, to you, does it seem like there's something different or something new this time?

Zohran Mamdani:

I think there's an unabashed nature to it, and it is being echoed from the highest offices in this country.

They do so without any sense of shame. And what is remarkable about Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry is not that it is bigoted, for there is so much bigotry in this country. It is that there are very few who speak up in opposition to it, the manner in which it has become normalized. And it is not exclusive to any one political party. It is endemic, frankly, to our politics.

And what this kind of bigotry shows is a complete erasure of the million or so Muslims who call the city home, whose identity has often been one that they are made to feel as if is in tension with being in New Yorker, when, as I grew up here, I understood, and so many others did, that there is no tension in those identities. They can be one and the same.

Amna Nawaz:

But, Mr. Mayor, when they're coming after you, when they are showing your face on TV screens, calling you a jihadist, saying you're the enemy, do you worry about your own safety and security here?

Zohran Mamdani:

I'm very lucky that I have an incredible team of NYPD officers who keep me safe each and every day. And my fear, frankly, is for those whose names we do not know, whose professions we do not know who are seen and understood to be Muslim and will be attacked for it. And they will not have the protections that I do.

Amna Nawaz:

Among the millions of people, of course, that you represent here in New York is also the largest Jewish population any city outside of Israel, over a million people, many of whom, as you know, did not vote for you.

Have you met with the groups that have expressed concern about what they say was a rolling back of protections against antisemitism? What are those conversations like?

Zohran Mamdani:

They have been continuing, and it's really been a pleasure to meet with so many Jewish leaders across the city. It was actually not that long ago in this very room that I met with a number of Orthodox leaders across the city, and we discussed antisemitism and our commitment to rooting it out across the five boroughs.

We also discussed childcare and housing and polity of life issues, because those are also the concerns that fill the lives of Jewish New Yorkers across the city. My job is not to be a mayor just for those who voted for me or those who agree with my politics. My job is to be the mayor for everyone who calls the city home, and to deliver them a city that they can be proud of.

Amna Nawaz:

So, Mr. Mayor, there was a time not too long ago when the president himself was attacking you quite frequently, and you him, we should say. He was calling you a lunatic. You had promised to be his worst nightmare if you were elected.

After your meeting with him in the Oval Office in November, all of that changed. Why? What happened to that room?

Zohran Mamdani:

You know, the president and I have many disagreements. We're not shy about them. We have been public about them. We have been private about them.

One thing we have very much in agreement is a love of New York City. And so in that meeting, in the subsequent conversations, and then in the following Oval Office meeting, I have gone back to the president with our hopes for what it could look like to actually put this city on better footing in the years to come.

I put forward a plan to build more housing than New York City has seen in any single housing development since the early '70s. Alongside that, I also made clear to the president, as I have before, my continued belief that ICE raids are cruel and inhumane, that they do nothing to advance the cause of public safety.

And I gave him and his chief of staff a list of five who had been detained in or around Columbia University. And maybe about 30 or so minutes after the meeting, the president called me to say that he made the decision that he was going to release that student who'd been detained that morning.

Amna Nawaz:

So you found a way to have a productive relationship with this president, despite your many differences. How would you describe that? Is it a partnership? Is it an alliance? What is it?

Zohran Mamdani:

I think it's a productive relationship between the mayor of this city, the president of this country, and one that is also honest.

I want to always be honest with the president and with the public about where those disagreements are and also that my job is not to litigate the disagreements, but to deliver for the people of New York City.

Amna Nawaz:

How often do you two text or talk to each other?

Zohran Mamdani:

I will leave that to the two of us, but I will tell you that that's the focus of that relationship.

Amna Nawaz:

Once a week, twice a week? Hotter? Colder?

Zohran Mamdani:

I will keep that between the two of us.

Amna Nawaz:

I have to ask you about your family before I let you go, because I think anyone familiar with the specific and what I would say very fortunate experience of being raised by Desi parents, South Asian parents, especially those with the courage and the hope to forge an entirely new life in new nations, you know that you can learn a lot from them.

Zohran Mamdani:

Yes.

Amna Nawaz:

What have you learned from your parents?

Zohran Mamdani:

You know, my mother would always tell me, if we don't tell our own stories, no one else will. And she imbued within me the importance of being proud of who you are.

And my father, also, he taught me, so often when you're growing up as a minority in a place, you can grow up also with a sense of almost a chip on your shoulder. With it also comes the ability to see the truth of a place in its entirety, the promise of it and that which still needs to be worked on. And that was, in such a way, so freeing to hear as a young person, to understand my place in the world and the responsibility that I had within it and the fact that it was a gift, not a burden.

Amna Nawaz:

Mr. Mayor, it's been such a pleasure to speak with you today.

Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York City, thank you for making the time.

Zohran Mamdani:

You're very welcome. Thank you so much.