New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the first Muslim and Asian American to hold the office, has plunged into controversy just weeks into his term. At least 13 homeless people froze to death during Winter Storm Fern, a brutal Arctic blast that gripped the city in late January 2026.
Critics, including New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin, blame Mamdani's refusal to break up street encampments and force vulnerable individuals into shelters.
Mamdani took office on January 1, 2026, after winning the November 2025 election on a Democratic Socialist platform. He immediately directed police and social workers not to dismantle homeless camps or compel people into shelters unless as a last resort.
This hands-off approach, rooted in his belief that such actions violate rights, backfired amid subzero temperatures and heavy snow.
By January 30, 2026, the death toll reached 13, with victims found in parks, subways, and alleys. Mamdani responded by calling the tragedies "deaths due to homelessness," not cold weather, and insisted the city has enough shelter beds for everyone in need. He argued forcing people indoors amounts to criminalization, echoing his campaign promises to end sweeps and prioritize "unhoused" dignity over enforcement.
Columnist Michael Goodwin wasted no time calling out Mamdani’s arrogance, saying his political honeymoon was over before it began. Goodwin pointed out that Mamdani ignores what actually works—policies that balance compassion with public safety. Instead, Mamdani is more interested in sticking to his ideology, even if it costs lives.
This disaster spotlights deeper issues with Mamdani's fitness for leadership. Born October 18, 1991, in Kampala, Uganda, to a wealthy Indian family, he grew up in privilege.
His father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a Marxist professor at Columbia with millions in the bank, always lecturing about colonialism. His mother, Mira Nair, is a famous filmmaker who sold their Manhattan loft for $1.45 million in 2019. Mamdani went to elite schools, nowhere near the working-class struggles he pretends to care about.
As a Democratic Socialists of America member, Mamdani pushes free buses, free childcare, rent freezes, and city-run groceries. Yet his background screams hypocrisy, a rich kid playing revolutionary while real New Yorkers suffer. His anti-Israel stance, including calls to end U.S. aid and linking the NYPD to the IDF, raises alarms about divided loyalties in a city with a large Jewish population.
Mamdani is just more proof that pampered socialists with foreign backgrounds and radical ideas are a recipe for disaster in American government.