Mamdani’s Scapegoats

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who exemplifies the growing red-green alliance in the United States—he is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and a follower of Twelver Shiism, the apocalyptic state religion of Iran—has been in office for little more than seven months. But he’s already made it clear what this confluence of radical ideologies means in practice: manufacturing scapegoats and fomenting class, racial, and religious hatreds. In this, Mamdani is following a political playbook used by both Communist and Islamist regimes to advance revolutionary aims.

In a video released on April 15, Tax Day in the United States, Mamdani gleefully announced, “Today, we’re taxing the rich.” He pointed behind him at “this penthouse, which hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin bought for $238 million,” as an example of the properties that would fall under the city’s new pied-à-terre tax. The tax was originally supposed to apply only to family homes worth more than $5 million, and in July the city began sending letters to 17,000 homeowners who “may be subject to the surcharge.” (In a brash tweet, Mamdani told these homeowners to “check your mailbox when you’re back in the five boroughs—because you’ve got mail.”) But the city simultaneously announced that condominiums and co-ops valued at more than $1 million would also be subject to the tax, and publicly listed the names and addresses of over 960,000 property owners who might be affected.

The city’s confusing rollout has drawn strong criticism. The published list erroneously includes working-class rowhouses, mid-$500,000 homes, and primary residences. The appeals process, which had an initial deadline of August 21 (since extended by a month), comes at a time when many people are on summer vacation. The procedural instructions don’t address basic questions and require the submission of multiple pieces of evidence on different websites, some of which have failed to save uploaded materials. The city’s “guilty until proven innocent” approach makes taxpayers responsible for work city officials should have done.