Vice President JD Vance delivered a sharp rebuke of New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani during a weekend speech at the Claremont Institute, saying the self-described communist represents the “contradictions and hypocrisies” at the core of today’s radical Left.
Vance described Mamdani, 33, as a “communist insurgent” whose victory in the Democratic mayoral primary didn’t reflect a grassroots movement of the working poor, but instead the rise of disillusioned, highly educated elites.
“Mamdani’s coalition is almost the inverse of President Trump’s,” Vance said, pointing out that while Trump won broad support from working- and middle-class Americans, Mamdani’s base is “wealthy, college-educated young people living in comfortable urban neighborhoods.”
According to Vance, Mamdani performed worst among black voters and those without college degrees, and relied instead on “carefully carved ethnic blocs” fueled by identity politics and “elite disaffection.”
“These are not downtrodden Americans. These are elite activists angry that their expensive degrees didn’t buy them the power and prestige they expected,” Vance said. “It’s not about dispossession. It’s about resentment and entitlement.”
Vance also slammed Mamdani’s obsession with foreign political causes, calling it a bizarre appeal to narrow ethnic constituencies rather than a serious focus on New York City issues.
“Why is a mayoral candidate threatening to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu or accusing India’s prime minister of war crimes?” Vance asked. “Why is he calling to ‘globalize the intifada’? None of this has anything to do with potholes, crime, or housing.”
The vice president argued that Mamdani’s foreign policy posturing and fringe domestic positions—such as taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for minors—expose the ideological incoherence of the modern Left.
“What unites this coalition of Islamists, gender-studies majors, Big Pharma lobbyists, and white liberal urbanites?” Vance asked. “It’s not Jeffersonian liberty. It’s not even Marxism. It’s hatred. They hate Trump, they hate everyone in this room, and above all, they hate the people who voted for Donald Trump in 2024.”
Vance said Mamdani embodies the modern Left’s contradictions: a man who champions the Palestinian cause while pushing policies that would be “incomprehensible on the streets of Gaza,” such as unlimited abortion and radical gender ideology.
“He is the perfect mascot for today’s activist Left,” Vance concluded. “A symbol of ideological confusion, cultural hostility, and the elite rage that fuels it all.”