New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants Americans to “take measure of who we are” on the nation’s 250th birthday, extolling the U.S. as a nation of promise while challenging it to be more equitable and welcoming to outsiders.
Seated behind President George Washington’s desk at New York City Hall on Friday, the democratic socialist mayor praised the hard-working and downtrodden while scolding nativists and greedy politicians.
“As we mark 250 years, what do we see? We see a city of contradictions, within a nation of contradictions,” he said. “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.
“We see masked agents terrorizing our streets, eating food cooked by our undocumented neighbors, before spiriting them away in unmarked vans,” he said, a rebuke of President Trump’s mass deportations through Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Mr. Mamdani, 34, shocked the political world by becoming mayor of America’s largest city this year after running on an openly socialist platform, decrying income inequality and the influence of big business and the wealthy.
Republicans and business leaders said it marked a dangerous turn toward communism that will chase away businesses from New York and erode wealth for everyone there.
A slate of Mamdani-endorsed Democrats recently won their primaries, hardening Mr. Trump’s argument that America risks sliding backward.
At the same time, the president has acknowledged Mr. Mamdani’s political power and charismatic ease before the cameras, and the pair have established an unlikely working relationship.
In his 13-minute speech, Mr. Mamdani recounted George Washington’s bravery, New York’s major role in American history and the dramatic founding of the country with the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The address could be viewed as a form of counterprogramming to Mr. Trump, who was set to deliver a speech at Mount Rushmore late Friday and the National Mall on Saturday.
Mr. Mamdani, who was born in Uganda, described coming to New York at age 7 and seeing the Statue of Liberty from the plane.
“Even from the air, we could make out the promise of America,” he said.
Surrounded by recently naturalized Americans, the mayor criticized those who believe only the “select few” can enjoy the country’s riches.
“America, they will tell you, belongs only to those with the right accent or the right shade of skin. The rest of us, they insist, should be grateful for merely being allowed to visit,” Mr. Mamdani said. “How small they are. How weak. How unoriginal.”
He repeatedly returned to his theme of seeing America as a triumphant land of possibility that remains a work in progress.
“Patriotism has never been about pretending our nation is without flaws,” he said. “Patriotism is every act of righteous dissent. It is every march led under the heavy sun. It is every protest held a decade before its time.”
Mr. Mamdani said U.S. ideals are strong enough to withstand “any authoritarian regime, but only if we reach for them.”
He added, “This will be no ordinary day of celebration. Two hundred fifty years presents a rare opportunity for more than 340 million people to turn together, both towards one another and towards ourselves, to take measure of who we are as a nation.
“Our is a nation working each way towards the perfection in which it was perceived, a nation striving each day to better itself. Therein lies the work of America. The striving. The bettering. The reaching towards perfection. What a privilege each of us has to live in a nation that every one of its inhabitants can shape.”
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