Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old Democratic nominee for mayor of New York, has come under fire from people on the right and even some on the left for his far-leftist views. Naturally, this has prompted legacy media outlets and left-leaning “fact-checkers” to rally to his defense.
PolitiFact recently took on claims that Mamdani is a communist due to his policy positions. Several high-profile individuals on the right have applied the label to Mamdani, including President Donald Trump, who called him a “Communist Lunatic.”
Mamdani himself has insisted that he is not a communist, but a Democratic Socialist. During a recent interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” host Kristen Welker brought up Trump’s comments and asked whether he was a communist. “I am not and I already have to get used to the fact that the president is going to talk about how I look, how I sound, where I am from and who I am—I'm fighting for the very working people that he ran a campaign to empower that he has since then betrayed,” the candidate replied.
WELKER: Trump called you a communist. Are you a communist?
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 29, 2025
MAMDANI: I am not and I already have to get used to the fact that the president is going to talk about how I look, how I sound, where I am from and who I am—I'm fighting for the very working people that he ran a campaign… pic.twitter.com/MjNDOaNEIf
PolitiFact spoke with multiple “experts” who defended Mamdani against the allegations. Anna Grzymala-Busse told the outlet that the candidate “is NOT a communist” and that “Communism involves a centrally planned economy, with no market forces.”
“Prices and quantities are set by a central government authority,” she continued. “There is no democratic political competition, and instead a single party rules the country. He is not calling for any of this.
The article goes on to claim that “Accusing Democrats of being communists or communist sympathisers is a frequent misleading attack line by some Republicans” and that this is “a red scare tactic that has existed in U.S. politics for decades.”
Yet, several of the policies Mamdani espouses are at least communist-adjacent. One of his more controversial proposals is the establishment of government-owned grocery stores. This idea is supposedly aimed at ensuring that low-income individuals can afford groceries and preventing the existence of food deserts. However, store owners in the city have expressed reservations about this plan. One suggested that “it could easily result in corruption and money laundering, like we’ve seen in some of the other agencies.”
A good reminder that Politifact is not a serious or reliable fact-checking organization. pic.twitter.com/bE2JmE8iov
— AG (@AGHamilton29) June 30, 2025
Others point out that government-run stores could harm privately owned establishments since the state can more easily fund low-cost products.
Mamdani also seeks to fund government programs by jacking up tax rates on wealthy New York City residents. Apparently, wealth distribution has nothing to do with communism, according to PolitiFact.
He also wants the government to have the ability to force landlords to stop charging rent, which is a blatant example of using the state to control private enterprise.
The candidate also wants to bolster government-owned transportation, childcare, and social welfare initiatives.
Mamdani is a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, which advocates for government-controlled healthcare, universal childcare, government-controlled education, and other authoritarian polices.
Here’s the thing. Being an open communist is the political version of drinking a gallon of arsenic. So, anyone who actually is a communist probably won’t admit it outright unless they enjoy losing elections.
Yes, it is true that Mamdani has never openly advocated for centralized government control of, well, everything. He has never shouted “workers of the world unite!” in public. But America should not let folks like him trick them into believing he is anything other than a communist.
The policies he and his ilk support are aimed at moving America closer to communism without explicitly saying so. Socialism is, in many ways, the gateway drug to Stalin-style left-wing authoritarianism. To them, the government is the end all be all. By clothing their rhetoric in Diet Communist diatribes, they seek to shift the Overton Window further towards their ultimate objective of a communist utopia without expressing their true intentions out loud. It’s a great tactic because it enables defenders and useful idiots like the folks at PolitiFact to help them conceal their true objectives. The question is: Will America fall for it?