U.S. Senator John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, sharply criticized New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s inaugural remarks, likening the mayor’s promotion of collectivist principles to historical socialist ideologies.
Kennedy shared a video excerpt from Mamdani’s public swearing-in ceremony, writing: “Mamdani’s ideas, cheered on by Sen. Sanders and AOC, are the antithesis of the American Dream—and they’re not new. They’re just the same old failures from Stalin and Lenin with better PR.”
The attached clip showed Mamdani stating: “We will draw this city closer together. We’ll replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivist solidarity.”
Mamdani continued in the excerpt: “If our campaign demonstrated that people in New York yearn for solidarity, then let this government foster it.”
He added: “Because no matter what you eat, how you pray, or where you come from, the words that most define us are the two we all share: New Yorkers.”
Kennedy’s post referenced endorsements of Mamdani by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, was sworn in as mayor on January 1, 2026.
He is the city’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor and the youngest in over a century.
The inauguration ceremony outside City Hall drew thousands despite cold weather and featured speakers including Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, as detailed in New York Times coverage.
In his full address, Mamdani pledged to govern “expansively and audaciously” as a democratic socialist, focusing on working-class priorities such as affordability, universal childcare, rent freezes, and free public transit.
He celebrated the city’s diversity, referencing contributions from workers like halal cart vendors and cooks.
Hours after the ceremony, Mamdani signed three executive orders on housing, reviving the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, establishing task forces to accelerate construction and inventory land, and addressing prior orders issued following former Mayor Eric Adams’s 2024 indictment.
Following the U.S. military operation on January 3 that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife on narco-terrorism charges, Mamdani publicly opposed the action, as discussed in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.
He stated that he called President Donald Trump to register opposition, describing it as regime change and a violation of federal and international law.
The Democratic Socialists of America issued a statement condemning the intervention as imperialist and demanding the return of Maduro and his wife to Venezuela along with U.S. military withdrawal from the region.
