Zohran Mamdani’s victory speech Tuesday night could have been ripped straight from Lenin’s 1917 revolution playbook — full of class warfare, lofty promises, and dangerous delusions. But instead of commanding a Red Army, this would-be Marxist mayor will soon face something far less romantic: cold, hard math.
Because while Mamdani may fancy himself the next Fidel Castro, New York City still operates under laws designed specifically to prevent people like him from turning the Big Apple into Havana-on-the-Hudson.
The 34-year-old “Democratic Socialist” assemblyman — with a degree in Africana Studies and a flair for preaching redistribution — promised a socialist buffet of free buses, government-run grocery stores, more welfare programs, and even taxpayer-funded gender treatments for children. And of course, he vowed to “soak the rich,” never mind that New York’s high earners already pay some of the steepest taxes in the nation and have been fleeing in droves.
But Mamdani might want to pause his revolution and crack open a history book. In the 1970s, New York City’s reckless spending and socialist-style governance nearly bankrupted the city. Garbage piled up, cops were laid off, and the city teetered on collapse. That’s when Governor Hugh Carey and financier Felix Rohatyn stepped in to create the Financial Emergency Act of 1975 — a set of guardrails meant to save the city from exactly the kind of ideological insanity Mamdani is peddling.
Under that law, bondholders get paid before any of Mamdani’s utopian “free stuff” schemes. The city must balance its budget under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles — no creative bookkeeping allowed. If he fails, control shifts to the Financial Control Board, chaired by Governor Kathy Hochul. And while Hochul pretends to be a moderate, even she knows she can’t let the state’s wealthiest taxpayers flee faster than they already are.
So, despite all of Mamdani’s revolutionary rhetoric, the reality is this: the laws of fiscal gravity still apply. If he overspends, bond ratings will tank, interest costs will spike, and the city will find itself right back where it was in the 1970s — broke and begging for a bailout.
And here’s the kicker: should that day come, Mamdani might have to turn to the one man who actually knows how to balance a budget and build prosperity — Donald J. Trump.
Something tells me if Trump does step in, the headline will look a lot like the one from 1975, when President Ford told New York to “Drop Dead.” Only this time, it might read: “TRUMP TO MAMDANI: YOU BUILT THIS MESS — NOW PAY FOR IT.”
Because no matter how loudly Mamdani shouts his socialist slogans, reality always wins. And in New York City, the financial firewall built by real leaders decades ago will make sure that Lenin’s ghost — and Mamdani’s fantasy — never take over.
