Who Does Mamdani Think He Is?

By Becket Adams

Sunday, July 26, 2026

 

Zohran Mamdani seems confused about his authority as a U.S. mayor.

 

It is becoming harder to discern whether he is just a run-of-the-mill  political hack or genuinely believes New York City is an independent nation-state that he can rule as sovereign, separate from the rest of the union and unbound by federal law.

 

Last week, the New York City leader posted a video to social media glumly conceding that he does not, in fact, have the legal authority to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for “war crimes.”

 

“My administration has reviewed every avenue available under applicable law to determine whether New York City could execute the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant if Benjamin Netanyahu came here,” he said. “It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant.”

 

Well, yes. Anyone with a basic understanding of U.S. civics could have told him this. Mamdani went on to urge the federal government “to join the ICC and execute this warrant” and “defend the humanity and dignity of all people.”

 

Ordinarily, one would chalk this up to a shrewd attempt by a shrewd politician to save face for a broken campaign promise — a bit of playacted disappointment meant to appease the disheartened faithful. In normal times, one would also look back at Mamdani’s election-year promise to arrest Netanyahu and dismiss it as a disingenuous play for votes.

 

But the good mayor is not exactly normal, and it’s difficult to tell whether he’s merely cunning or just that delusional.

 

Remember: This “arrest Netanyahu” business didn’t occur in a vacuum.

 

Mamdani released a video earlier this month directly countering the White House’s cheery celebration of the Fourth of July and the 250th birthday of America’s founding. Sitting behind George Washington’s desk and flanked on both sides by depressed-looking immigrants, Mamdani delivered an address in which he listed and denounced America’s sins.

 

“As we mark 250 years, what do we see?” he asked. “We see the wealthiest country in the history of the world, one where children go to sleep hungry while the world’s first trillionaire hungers for more. We see monopolies that dominate every industry and oligarchs who buy elections.”

 

Mamdani added, “We see massed agents terrorizing our streets, eating food cooked by our undocumented neighbors before spiriting them away in unmarked vans. We see a nation whose immense wealth has been built by those with calloused, dirt-streaked hands, those who toil on factory floors and chisel into stone, and we see a nation that has allowed so much of that wealth to be held instead in the soft hands of a precious few.”

 

Counterprogramming the executive branch on the Fourth of July? That takes chutzpah.

 

This is not something U.S. mayors typically do.

 

Look, we get it: As a key figure in the recent ascent of the democratic socialist wing of the Democratic Party, it’s obvious Mamdani sees himself as a movement leader. This is why he comments constantly on events in which he has no role, power, or oversight, including the Paramount–WBD merger, Graham Platner’s failed Senate campaign, an ICE-related shooting in Minnesota, a shooting in Texas, and, of course, anything involving Israel.

 

Mamdani does not see himself as merely the mayor of New York City. He does not see himself as a local executive whose primary job is the competent and efficient oversight of transit, housing, and basic services.

 

The mayor sees himself as a leader in national politics writ large. (Too bad for New Yorkers. While their mayor focuses on matters of national and international concern, local ones get less attention: 19 dead after a cold snap, City Hall inexplicably granting press passes to accused murderer Luigi Mangione’s groupies, and the mayor himself explaining climbing rape statistics by saying the current definition of “rape” is broader than in the past.)

 

But Mamdani’s behavior signals more than just an outsized sense of political self-importance. He acts, at times, like a sovereign whose enclave happens to be located within the United States of America.

 

Which brings us to the business of the Mamdani administration’s failed attempt to schedule an in-person meeting with Iran’s U.N. ambassador.

 

In case you’ve forgotten, the U.S. is at war with Iran.

 

The State Department eventually intervened and canceled the meeting between International Affairs Commissioner Ana María Archila and the Iranian ambassador. (The Mamdani administration insists that the attempted meeting was merely a procedural “error.”)

 

That the mayor’s team needed to be told at all that it can’t set up independent meetings with delegates from hostile foreign nations is astonishing.

 

Even more astonishing is that this wasn’t the first meeting nixed by State: It also intervened when Mamdani attempted to schedule a sit-down with outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro. The State Department argued that such a meeting would violate the terms of Petro’s entry into the U.S. for a United Nations Security Council meeting. Petro’s visa was revoked last year following an appearance at a pro-Palestinian rally in Manhattan in which he urged U.S. servicemen to disobey their officers and encouraged violence in response to Israel’s war in Gaza.

 

As it turns out, the New York City mayor’s office does not have the authority to conduct U.S. foreign policy. That power belongs to the federal government alone.

 

All of which points back to the larger picture: Mamdani and his camp seem to believe he has power he does not actually have.

 

Let me put it this way: There is the politician who promises to put a chicken in every pot. We all know the type. There is also the student who genuinely believes that he can abolish finals if elected student body president. Most of us have met that type.

 

Though it’s unclear whether Mamdani is the former or the latter, one thing seems certain: He does not consider himself a mere mayor.

 

That his fiefdom happens to fall within U.S. borders is just a detail.