'Sinister', 'venomous', 'jihadist sympathiser': Zohran Mamdani in the firing line of right-wing media

New York City's incoming mayor, Zohran Mamdani, hasn't taken office yet. But he's already the new avatar of evil for conservative media figures.

He's been called “downright sinister” and “incompatible with America”. His labels include commie, Marxist, jihadist sympathizer and “seething leftist”. Fox News' Laura Ingraham warned her viewers not to be fooled by “smiling socialists who rule like Soviet tyrants.”

A New York Post post-election cover that depicted Mamdani holding aloft the Soviet Union's hammer and sickle symbol sold out on newsstands by noon and was offered on e-Bay for $75. By the end of the day, the Post was selling baby onesies and commemorative plates emblazoned with the cover.

Already, conservative outlets see Mamdani joining Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton as someone guaranteed to make their audiences' blood boil. And by doing so, they can help Republicans in the midterm elections.

“It's very clear that he's going to be the No. 1 target of right-wing media for the foreseeable future, well into 2026,” said Howard Polskin, publisher of the Righting, a newsletter that follows conservative media. “He's colourful, controversial and not afraid of a fight.”

The head of an outlet that Polskin regularly monitors, the Daily Signal, said Mamdani is likely seen as a threat because his appeal to working-class Americans who feel left behind by the economy is similar to that of President Donald Trump, although they have different ideas about how to handle that.

“Remember years ago, there was Nancy Pelosi who was the bogeyman for Republicans,” said Rob Bluey, president and executive editor of the Daily Signal. “I think Mamdani is probably going to be the new person. I think that's why you see a lot of emphasis on him in conservative media.”

In the Washington Examiner, editor-in-chief Hugo Gurdon saw ominous signs in Mamdani's election night victory speech.

“He was downright sinister, glorying not just in his achievement but in having laid low his vanquished enemies and stuck it to others besides. He took off his smiling campaign mask and revealed his venomous self,” Gurdon wrote.

Newsmax's Rob Schmitt called Mamdani the “mayor for the foreign-born. We have flooded the country with diversity, and diversity delivered us Zohran".

In an interview, Schmitt said he wasn't quite ready to anoint Mamdani as a deliberate target for the conservative media.

“A go-to bogeyman makes it sound like it's manufactured,” he told The Associated Press, “whereas we are just appropriately concerned about people that are spewing or trying to push an ideology that is destined to not work.”

The Post recognised Mamdani as a target of interest well before the election. Between October 27 and November 5, he was the subject of seven of the tabloid's covers. One, headlined “Mam-Child," depicted Mamdani in a little boy's overalls to illustrate a column warning that the city wasn't a toy to hand to a “baby like Zohran”.

Another front page blared “Not Zo Fast” to herald a tightening race in the polls. Election Day's lead headline was “Trump to New York: Keep the Commie Out.”

Mamdani reached out to the White House post-election for a meeting with Trump and the president said Sunday that “we'll work something out”.

Mamdani's status as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and his Muslim background are behind many of the conservative media attacks.

Asked on NBC's “Meet the Press” this spring whether he was a communist, Mamdani said, “No, I am not.” Webster's defines socialism as a political theory where the community or government owns and controls the production and distribution of goods. Communism, advanced by revolutionary Karl Marx, is considered a step beyond, where private property and capitalism no longer exist.

Many of Mamdani's critics make no distinction. “Commie takeover in the Big Apple,” one Fox News onscreen headline read. “They elected a communist,” World Net Daily wrote. “Communist, not socialist,” Trump said in a “60 Minutes” interview last month. “Communist. He's far worse than a socialist.”

Some Jewish groups have expressed scepticism about Mamdani, who has supported Palestinian rights and criticised Israel's attack in Gaza as genocide. But he has denounced Hamas' Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel and said he would work to combat anti-semitism.

Republicans have a clear interest in seeing more American Jews — traditionally a group that leans toward Democrats — switch over. But that doesn't account for some of the hostility seen in the media.

The National Review said Mamdani's win meant “it's open season on New York Jews”.

Megyn Kelly said the tenets of Islam are inconsistent with American values and Muslims should not be elected mayors or governors. Podcaster Michael Savage called him a “Marxist jihadist sympathiser”. Influencer Laura Loomer predicted Mamdani would encourage Muslims to commit political assassinations to acquire power and silence critics.

Mamdani's staff did not return messages from The Associated Press. In the waning days of his campaign, he spoke out against some of the religious-based attacks on him.

“I thought that if I behaved well enough or bit my tongue enough in the face of racist, baseless attacks all while returning back to my central message, it would allow me to be more than just my faith,” he said. “I was wrong. No amount of redirection is ever enough.”

Some of the attacks reflect a common theme in politics and the media — not unique to Mamdani — to associate all members of a political party with the beliefs of one who could be depicted as on the fringe. The Daily Signal wrote after his election that Mamdani “is now the putative leader of his party”.

The Victory Girls conservative blog used an illustration of the incoming mayor in a military uniform. "The socialists are coming, and Mamdani is just the beginning,” the blog wrote. “If we ignore them, we will all be in big trouble.”

“He's the new AOC in the sense that they have found someone who is relatively unknown that they get to define and hold up as the example of what it means to be a Democrat,” said Angelo Carusone, president of the liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America.

Carusone said he's not sure if Mamdani will become a villain of the conservative media on the level of a Clinton or Pelosi, but he can understand the urgency.

“If you don't check him now," Carusone said, “he's going to capture the young people."