New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Thursday as he reflected on his first 100 days in office that he believes democratic socialism "can flourish anywhere."
"I think that this is a politics that can flourish anywhere because, frankly, there is only one majority in this country — that's the working class. And it's time we have politics that puts them at the heart of what it is that we're pursuing, and not as part of the appendix," Mamdani said in an interview on "CBS Mornings."
He said that before he became mayor of New York City, he "was told that you could only be a democratic socialist in northwest Queens."
"Then I became the mayor, now the next question is the state, then it'll be, the next question will be the country," he said.
The mayor was sworn in on Jan. 1 and quickly moved to deliver some of his key campaign promises to New Yorkers, including expanding free child care programs, creating an Office of Community Safety and announcing the site of New York City's first city-run grocery store. But some of his most highly touted pledges, including a rent freeze and making city buses free, remain stalled.
Mamdani said he's proud of the work his team accomplished over the first 100 days.
"We're seeing the kind of progress we were told was impossible," he said.
Mamdani pointed to the work to fill vacancies on the board that has a say in rent-stabilized housing, and a decision is forthcoming this summer. On buses, he said, "we're already speeding up buses for more than a million New Yorkers, putting six minutes back in their pockets," while working with Albany to make buses free.
"We're doing all of it while also accomplishing the same thing that we said we would do, before even affordability, which is public safety, and that is a key part of our agenda," Mamdani said.
Mamdani also touted the move, alongside New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, to pursue a tax on secondary homes worth more than $5 million and owned by non-New Yorkers.
"We're going to be raising $500 million for the city directly from this new pied-à-terre tax," he said. "And it is a clear example of not only a system of taxation that has been hurting working people, but now one that will be fairer by taxing the wealthiest just a little bit more."
His comments come as President Trump has been friendly toward Mamdani despite their political differences. At a stunning White House meeting in November, Mr. Trump praised the incoming mayor profusely. The two men pledged to work together to make New York better and met again in February to talk about housing development.
Mamdani said Thursday that he and the president are in touch, adding "we are honest, direct about the fact that we have many disagreements."
"There is one place of agreement that we have, which is that we both love New York City," he said. "And that's, I think, something that is at the heart of every conversation we have is, how can we make the city better? Because both of us have said publicly that the better the city does, the better we feel."
One key area of disagreement is on the war in Iran. The mayor said he's "deeply opposed to the war," adding that it's something that "should be opposed not just on a political level or an economic level, but frankly, a moral level."
"We're talking about spending close to $30 billion to kill thousands of people an ocean away, while we're told that we don't have even an ounce of that money to help working class Americans across this country," Mamdani said.
Mamdani's approval rating stood at 48% as he approached 100 days in office, according to a Marist poll released last week. Meanwhile, 30% of New York City residents said they disapprove of his job performance, and 23% said they were unsure.
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