A Socialist Swearing In
Plus: the limits of Zohran Mamdani's ability to ruin New York, Trump's National Guard withdrawal, and a deadly New Year's blaze in Switzerland
Mamdani sworn in: Zohran Mamdani, 34, was sworn in as the new mayor of New York City on New Year's Day, at an abandoned subway station underneath City Hall.
This was followed by a public ceremony above ground, where fellow socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) swore in the new mayor. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.) was also in attendance.
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Since his upset primary victory back in June, there's been a lot of tea reading about how Mamdani will actually govern. Will he be the hard-left ideologue that makes the buses free or a more pragmatic executive focused on doing what's necessary and realistic to get the trains to run on time?
While the new mayor has given some hints at moderation over the past few months, his inaugural remarks were anything but moderate.
"To those who insist that the era of big government is over, hear me when I say this: No longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorkers' lives," said Mamdani. "We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism."
On policy, Mamdani reiterated his campaign trail pledges to make buses and childcare free, freeze rents in rent-stabilized units, and create a Department of Community Safety as a social services-focused supplement to the city's police force.
Don't Panic: That all is certainly worrisome for anyone who's been trepidatious about what a Mamdani administration will mean for the size and scope of city government. The new mayor's promise to "free small business owners from the shackles of bloated bureaucracy" is less than encouraging in the wider context of his remarks.
Those concerned about the Big Apple turning red still have a few reasons to be cautiously optimistic that Mamdani's plans to remake New York City into a socialist utopia will fail.
Within the next couple of weeks, Mamdani will have to release a balanced budget for the city government. His plans for some $10 billion in new spending will have to reckon with the fact that the city has a current budget gap of some $8–10 billion that legally needs to be closed first.
Any hope of doing so by raising taxes on higher-income residents and corporations, as Mamdani has promised to do, will require approval from state politicians who've been lukewarm, if not outright hostile, to the idea of approving local tax hikes.
His plans for fare-free transit and a rent freeze will require sign-offs from a state transit agency and a Rent Guidelines Board that Mamdani does not exercise unilateral control over.
Indeed, Mamdani's decision to have his official swearing-in ceremony at the abandoned City Hall subway station is more than a little ironic.
His symbolic intention was to signal his administration's commitment to running a city government that pulls off big, bold projects. It's more than a little awkward then that the City Hall station was part of the city's first subway system that was built and operated by private contractors.
"I was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist," said Mamdani during his remarks. The powers of his office are not particularly geared toward ideological, activist government.
That doesn't mean Mamdani's tenure will be good for the city. It does put some practical limits on just how bad it can get. As Katherine Mangu-Ward writes in Reason's latest print issue, "Mamdani can't ruin New York."
Trump rolls back National Guard deployments: On New Year's Eve, President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that he would be removing federalized National Guardsmen from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, following a string of adverse court decisions.
"Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago were GONE if it weren't for the Federal Government stepping in. We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again - Only a question of time!" said the president.
Trump's comments came on the same day that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ordered him to return control of the California National Guard to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The week prior, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an emergency decision blocking the Trump administration from deploying federalized National Guardsmen to support immigration enforcement operations in Illinois.
Scenes from D.C.: Meanwhile, here in the nation's capital, the presence of uniformed National Guardsmen on city streets remains an ongoing phenomenon. Despite legal objections from the city's attorney general, courts have looked more favorably on the president's power to deploy guardsmen in the federal district.
There are now 2,500 troops, drawn from the National Guards of D.C. and ten states with Republican governors, on city streets, reports WTOP.
Their numbers have increased since the fatal shooting of a West Virginia National Guard member last month, and court documents suggest troops would continue to patrol the city through the summer.
This journalist spotted a squad of five guardsmen outside the liquor store on New Year's Eve. After a few months of their presence, it's hard to get too alarmed about their being here on a practical level.
The guardsmen themselves mostly just stand around talking amongst themselves. That's not particularly threatening. It also doesn't feel particularly necessary. There remains something deeply un-American about uniformed military personnel performing routine policing tasks, and that won't change in the New Year.
Quick Hits
- I'll be writing Roundup for the next few weeks while my colleague Liz Wolfe tends to her new baby. Until she's back, please direct all your angry emails to me.
- Some 40 people were tragically killed in a fire at a Swiss ski resort bar during a New Year's celebration. Officials have yet to determine what caused the conflagration, although they have ruled out a terrorist attack.
- In 2026, politicians won't be able to stop talking about affordability. I wrote about how this is good news for free market politics.
- Anti-government protests have erupted in Iran. Trump has said the U.S. is ready to intervene if the government fires on peaceful demonstrators.
- California's billionaires say they'll leave the state if voters pass a punishing new wealth tax. The state's unionized health care workers need to collect 875,000 signatures to place their proposed one-time, 5 percent wealth tax on individuals with a net worth of over $1 billion on the November 2026 ballot.
