Zoran Mamdani, 33, who soared to lead in the New York City Mayoral Democratic primary, describes himself as a democratic socialist. However, some politicians and social media posts mistakenly label him as a communist.
President Donald Trump called Mamdani “a 100% communist madman” in his Truth Social Post on June 25th.
Nick Soth, the conservative podcast host, says, “Zoran Mamdani isn’t even a socialist. He’s not even a communist.” She shares a video clip of Mamdani, asking for a network of city-owned grocery stores. “He’s gone even further than Bernie Sanders. He wants a government-run grocery store.”
Ben Shapiro, co-founder of the conservative website The Daily Wire, said in his podcast that “big news of the day: Communists are likely to be New York City’s next mayor.”
Representative Elise Stefanik also wrote to X that Mamdani is a “communist.”
Mamdani’s platform is seeking to make transportation, housing and groceries more affordable, but experts say they don’t support important doctrines of communism, such as governments buying them out of industry and private property.
“Mumdani is not a communist,” wrote Anna Gujmara Bas, professor of international studies at Stanford University, in an email to politics. “Communism includes a centrally planned economy without market forces. Prices and quantities are set by central government authorities. There is no democratic political competition, instead a single party controls the country. He does not seek this.”
Denouncing a communist or communist sympathizer is a frequent misleading line of attack by some Republicans. It’s a red horror tactic that has existed in American politics for decades, but it has been transformed by the success of some democratic socialists, including US Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Mamdani made a national headline on June 24th after former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo admitted the primary. Once the city completes its ranked choice voting process, it is expected that the Mamdani will win. Mamdani’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
In November, Mamdani faces Republican candidate Curtis Swa. Cuomo kept the door open for running as an independent.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Mamdani’s platform calls for some city-owned grocery stores and other affordable policies
Mamdani, who represents part of the Queens Borough of the New York State Legislature, identifies him as a democratic socialist.
American New York Civic Socialists supported their member Mamdani.
The group defines its goal as “collectively owning the key economic factors that govern our lives, such as energy production and transportation,” and has a “system in which ordinary people have a real voice in their workplaces, their neighbours and society.”
Mamdani’s platform includes frozen rents for tenants in buildings with existing caps on price increases between lease terms. He also proposed creating a city-owned grocery store, and in an interview with Spectrum News NY1 in June, he said he would start with one grocery store in each borough, modeled with a municipally owned store in Kansas.
He also proposed free buses and childcare, raising corporate tax rates and minimum wages.
Mam ticks do not ask for removal of personal ownership. One of the goals included on his website is to “start and run a business faster, easier and cheaper.”
He told The New York Times he changed his mind about the role of the private market in home building and “I am clearly aware that it has a very important role now.” The story links to Mamdani’s website, which the public sector builds affordable housing, but rather than taking over all the housing, they want from the public sector.
What is the difference between communism and democratic socialism?
We sent highlights from the Mamdani platform to seven experts in academic disciplines such as political science, law and anthropology. No one concluded that Mamdani was a communist.
“The idea that Mamdani is a communist is an absurd slander,” said Jeffrey Kurtz, an associate professor of political science for the district of Manhattan Community College at City University of New York.
When American politicians use the term democratic socialism, they refer to generous social insurance programs available in many European countries in order to pay for education and healthcare costs, if necessary.
Mamdani is not trying to abolish private property or advocate for government acquisition of any industry, said Ted Henken, a professor at Balf University. Instead, Mamdani suggests targeted interventions to address the high cost of living in New York City, Henken said.
“It appears that New Yorkers who support him will do so not because of the communist ideology about him or their parts, but to suggest that he deal with this affordable crisis,” Henken said.
“His city-run grocery store idea, for example, does not propose to take over or abolish private grocery chains (which have already received city subsidies), but does not propose to complement them with non-profit city-run stores,” Henken said.
In a video of the campaign’s Tiktok video, Mamdani said that “we will redirect funds from corporate supermarkets to city-owned grocery stores,” but he did not say he would remove the corporate market. Mamdani also said the city-owned market will work with privately owned small businesses and farms.
Political theory experts have said many of Mamdani’s proposals have existed in other democracies for decades.
“Many Western democracies, from France to Canada, have policies such as free or severely subsidized childcare and public transport,” said Oxana Chevell, an associate professor of comparative politics at Tufts University.
Under the communist agenda, the government owns everything, has full control over prices, and not only rents and operates some supermarkets, but also fully controls prices. And under communism, there are no other political parties than the Communist Party.
“This is not what he claims,” Chevell said. “So he’s not a ‘communist’. ”
Harvey Claire, an expert at Emory University on the history of American communism, said democratic socialism emerged as an alternative to communism.
“In theory, at least in theory, they reject notions of communism, such as the pioneering of the proletariat and the hostility of communism to representative democracy, and the communist belief in the state ownership of the means of production,” Claire said. “That being said, there are many issues they agree with, including hostility towards capitalism.”
Experts have said there is a reasonable criticism of Mamdani’s proposal, but that will not become his proposal communist.
Our arbitration
Trump said Mamdani is a communist.
Mamdani’s mayoral platform proposes making New York City more affordable, including free buses and daycare, rent management and city-owned grocery stores. It doesn’t resemble communism. Communism is a system in which the government controls the means of production and takes over private companies. Mamdani does not seek the exclusion of private ownership.
He also does not seek to eliminate another doctrine of communism: democracy and political parties.
This statement is evaluated incorrectly.
Researcher Carin Baird contributed to this fact check
