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Zohran Mamdani greets the crowd at an Election Night watch party following his election as mayor of New York on Nov. 4, 2025. (AFP/Yonhap)

Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old Ugandan-born Indian American and self-described democratic socialist, has been elected the new mayor of New York City.

US President Donald Trump has blasted his upstart political foe as a “communist” and threatened to slash federal funding for New York City, hinting that the US may face even worse political division going forward.

Political shakeups tend to recalibrate a superpower’s foreign policy, which could have major repercussions for Koreans. While we’re waiting to see whether Mamdani’s ascendancy will help restore American democracy, we must also ponder ways to reduce our dependence on the US.

Mamdani, representing the Democratic Party, received a majority of votes in the mayoral election on Tuesday, comfortably defeating Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York, who was running as an independent.

“In this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light,” Mamdani said in a speech after clinching victory on Tuesday night. “If there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power.” These remarks make clear that Mamdani won’t shy away from a head-on confrontation with the “despot” — a clear reference to Trump.

Many pundits see the New York City mayoral election and other elections on Tuesday, held as they were during the shutdown of the US federal government, as an interim assessment of the various destructive policies Trump has unleashed. The Democratic Party also scored victories in gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, building a bridgehead for a counterattack in the midterm elections next November.

Mamdani’s astonishing rise from a political no-name to mayor of the US’ most populous metropolis in a single year was enabled by his promised platform of “freezing the rent” and other catchy political slogans as New York City citizens struggle to stay afloat amid rising prices.

A Jan. 1 viral video shows Mamdani jumping into the ice-cold water off Coney Island in a full suit while shouting, “I’m freezing…your rent.”

Since then, Mamdani has pledged programs calibrated to appeal to the city’s working-class population, such as free bus service, free and universal child care, and city-managed nonprofit supermarkets.

To fund these programs, Mamdani plans to raise taxes on corporations (which are assessed by the state of New York) and impose a higher income tax on those making more than US$1 million a year. 

Could the society envisioned by Mamdani, a Muslim person of color, coexist with the Christian-centered white nation Trump is seeking to build? Sharp conflict between these two visions could plunge American society into chaos. That’s why Mandani’s victory is encouraging and worrying in equal measures.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]