New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump has intersected with a growing Republican effort to cast him as emblematic of the Democratic Party’s left wing. That campaign has intensified with Mamdani’s decision to add sociology professor Alex Vitale, a prominent critic of policing, to his transition team, and with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent questioning the viability of the mayor-elect’s policy agenda in a televised interview.
Last week, President Donald Trump met with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office, a meeting that Republicans and conservative commentators quickly moved to frame as part of their broader midterm strategy. Slate has reported that GOP operatives see Mamdani as a useful foil and have discussed tying House Democrats to what they describe as his far-left agenda on issues such as policing and affordability.
In the run-up to and aftermath of Mamdani’s victory, right-wing activists and some Republican figures have repeatedly attacked him over his Muslim faith and political views, often casting him as a “communist” and a security threat, according to Slate’s account of GOP messaging and social media campaigns. One prominent conspiracy theorist, Laura Loomer, for example, has circulated posts on X describing Mamdani in such terms; Slate reports that these attacks fit into a wider effort on the right to nationalize the New York mayor’s race and portray Mamdani as a symbol of what they call an “anti-American” left.
Slate further reports that civil rights groups and researchers have documented a surge of Islamophobic and anti-immigrant rhetoric aimed at Mamdani online, including the frequent use of terms such as “terrorist,” “jihadi” and “Islamist,” and that Republicans have spoken about using this language and imagery to motivate their base in the midterm elections. The outlet notes that GOP campaign committees have already begun testing digital ads that seek to link Democratic candidates to Mamdani and his policy proposals.
Republican elected officials have also escalated their attacks in public statements. According to Slate’s reporting, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik has described Mamdani using inflammatory language, while other Republicans have flirted with efforts to question his naturalization and even suggested denaturalizing and deporting him — rhetoric Mamdani has condemned as Islamophobic and as a distraction from economic concerns. In remarks recently reported by Yahoo News, the mayor-elect argued that Republicans are focusing on “cheap jokes about Islamophobia” instead of addressing issues such as health care, groceries and rent, and accused the party of offering “cruelty and punishment” as its core agenda.
That broader backlash has unfolded alongside Mamdani’s transition planning at City Hall. On November 24, 2025, Mamdani added Alex Vitale, a sociology professor at Brooklyn College and author of the 2017 book “The End of Policing,” to his transition team to work on community safety issues. The move, first detailed by outlets including the Daily Wire and the Daily Caller, placed a long‑time critic of traditional law enforcement strategies in a formal advisory role.
Vitale announced his new position on X, writing that he had been asked to join the Mamdani Transition Team “to work on community safety issues” and calling it “A New Era for NYC,” according to the Daily Wire’s account of the post. In his book and subsequent interviews, Vitale has argued that modern policing often reinforces inequality, and he has advocated replacing many current police functions with a mix of decriminalization, social services and housing programs. He has publicly urged the decriminalization of prostitution and certain drug offenses and has called for permanent housing initiatives for people who are homeless.
Conservative outlets, including the Daily Wire and the Daily Caller, have highlighted past comments in which Vitale described police officers as “violence workers” and argued that “if you don’t want racism and violence, don’t get the police involved.” They have also noted his criticism of U.S. police departments training with Israeli security forces; in one cited remark, Vitale said he was “not happy with these exchanges of policing to Israel” and contended that “Israel is engaged in an occupation.”
The appointment has drawn sharp criticism from Mamdani’s opponents, who say it signals a return to the anti-police positions he espoused earlier in his political career, despite his attempts during the mayoral campaign to distance himself from “defund the police” rhetoric and to apologize to NYPD officers for past statements. The Daily Wire reported that critics on X warned the move could prompt an exodus from the NYPD, comparing the situation to officer departures in San Francisco under former district attorney Chesa Boudin.
At the national level, the Trump administration has also weighed in on Mamdani’s rise. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who was present in the Oval Office for Mamdani’s meeting with Trump, discussed the encounter and the mayor-elect’s agenda in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” according to the Daily Wire. Bessent said he admired Mamdani’s political skills, telling the program that “you’ve got to have some admiration for a candidate who ran a campaign the way he did” and describing it as “a great, great campaign.”
But Bessent sharply criticized Mamdani’s policy proposals, saying, “I can tell you my impression of the mayor-elect is he’s a young man with a lot of old ideas that have never worked. Point to one example where policies like his have led to anything other than a decline.” He added that governing New York City would pose practical challenges that go beyond campaigning, citing the “everyday of keeping people safe, picking up the trash, making the subways run on time … we’ll see.”
Bessent also framed Mamdani as a central figure in the Democratic Party’s left wing, telling the Daily Wire that the mayor-elect has become the face of the party’s ascendant socialist bloc even as some top Democrats have kept their distance. He pointed out that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer did not endorse Mamdani and has not yet met with him, though Schumer has separately said in comments reported by Politico that he has a good relationship with the mayor-elect and that Mamdani’s focus on affordability is being echoed by Democrats nationwide.
According to the Daily Wire account of his remarks, Bessent praised Trump for inviting Mamdani to the Oval Office and described the president as “open-minded” in engaging with an ideological rival. At the same time, Republicans are moving to use that rivalry to their advantage, casting Mamdani both as a threat to public safety in New York and as a symbol of what they argue are the excesses of Democratic economic and social policy as the midterm campaign season begins.
