Mayor Mamdani Meets Sky High Expectations
By Romen Basu Borsellino | 04 Mar, 2026

Just two months into his administration, the NY Mayor s succeeding by nearly every metric. And with no signs of slowing down.

When Barack Obama delivered his historic victory speech on November 4, 2008, one line in particular stood out to me.  

“The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year, or even one term.”

I couldn’t help but feel like he was immediately lowering the expectations that he had spent the previous year and a half as a candidate building.  While nothing could take away from the euphoric feeling that his victory brought me, I wondered if Obama the President might be any different from Obama the candidate.

Mamdani successfully utilized social media to announce a snow day

Obama’s election was once again a hot topic of conversation just last year when long shot candidate Zohran Mamdani rocketed from obscurity to win the nomination and ultimately the general election for Mayor of New York. 

I personally joined many others in remarking that Mamdani’s candidacy inspired a feeling of excitement that we hadn’t seen since Obama. 

But if Mamdani’s victory speech was any indication, we might be in for a different kind of administration than Obama’s.  In contrast to the 44th President, the following was a line from Mamdani's election night victory speech:

“When we enter City Hall in 58 days, expectations will be high. We will meet them.”

That was four months ago. Mamdani has now been Mayor for two months. 

Has he, in fact met expectations?

Public Perception

The warm relationship between Mamdani and President Trump has shocked the political world

If we’re using popularly as a metric through which to judge expectations, then there's no question of Mamdani's success

A poll conducted at the end of January found Mamdani’s popularity among New Yorkers at an all time high, with a net approval rating of +48. 

For comparison, he was at +38 in December just before he was sworn in and +14 in September before he was elected. 

Per CNN’s political analyst Harry Entern, Mamdani is “The most popular politician in New York City in a generation.”

Mamdani’s popularity also extends beyond the perimeters of the city that elected him.  When conducted across the entire state of New York, the same survey found Mamdani at +14, which makes him the more popular Democrat in the state. 

For comparison, US Senator Kristen Gillibrand is at +12, Governor Kathy Hochul is at +9, and Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate  Minority Leader, is at -7.  

Suffice it to say this is a major achievement.  When politicians take office, their approval ratings typically head in the opposite direction as Mamdani’s. 

It remains to be seen of course whether this will last. But there are a few clear reasons how Mamdani has achieved this.

Partnerships:

The Governor

During election season, Mamdani's loudest detractors made sure to remind the public that even if elected, Mamdani would be unable to achieve many of his stated goals without the approval of the Governor.  Even Mamdani’s supporters seemed to acknowledge this.

Making things tricky was the fact that Governor Kathy Hochul is a self-described centrist, a far cry from Mamdani’s own membership in the Democratic Socialists of America.

That’s why Hochul’s endorsement of Mamdani in the general came as a surprise, particularly given that he was running against Andrew Cuomo, the man who once made her Lieutenant Governor.

Mamdani and Governor Hochul

But the alliance with Mamdani made sense.  It would allow him to flex a broader coalition of support than he was believed to have, and might in turn allow some of Mamdani’s own popularity to rub off on Hochul.

But what few expected was the extent to which the partnership would continue on after Mamdani won.

On January 8, one week after Mamdani was sworn in, he and Gov Hochul held a joint press conference to announce their plan for expanding free childcare, a key plank of Mamdani’s campaign.

The announcement drew widespread praise both politically and as a matter of policy.  According to Politico, this plan was in the works from almost the moment that Mamdani secured the nomination in June. 

The two met for the first time that month to begin exploring policy options.  As one of Hochul’s advisers said of Mamdani, ​​“I think he understands that he needs her as a partner to actually deliver on this agenda. He has so far struck me as a collaborator and a coalition builder which is what her natural bent is as well and is why they have started to chart this path together.”

Just over a month later, the two again teamed as Hochul announced the allocation of additional $1.5 billion to help the city face the budget crisis that had been in place since before Mamdani took office.

And on February 5 Mamdani officially endorsed Hochul for re-election, a move once unthinkable given their respective political philosophies. 

The endorsement drew mixed reactions, with some of Mamdani’s most leftist supporters pushing back, while others understood the pragmatism behind the decision.

Plus, there was another relationship arguably more worthy of the public's attention.

The President

If the partnership between Mamdani and Hochul can accurately be described as surprising, there may be no words to adequately capture the nearly-universal response to Mamdani and President Trump’s relationship.

But stunning, gobsmacking, and mind-boggling might come close.

Prior to a meeting in the Oval Office that followed Mamdani’s victory, the Mayor-elect had spent, well, his entire political career blasting the President, even calling him a fascist.  Trump had in turn been referring to Mamdani as “my little communist,” not to mention a history of incendiary statements and policies directed at Muslims like Mamdani.

Yet their first meeting was referred to as a “bro-fest,” complete with smiles and laughter.  In the post-game analysis, Mamdani drew nearly universal praise for his ability to ingratiate himself with an adversary.

Trump even went on to compliment Mamdani during his televised State of the Union address.

But would any of this actually result in something tangible? 

Last week, we got our answer. 

In a surprise Oval Office meeting on Thursday, the two announced a joint plan to build 12,000 new affordable housing units in New York.  It would be the biggest federal housing investment since 1973.

The announcement was complete with fake newspaper headlines, drawn up by Mamdani’s team, that praised the President. 

What’s more, just hours after the meeting, Trump announced the release of a New Yorker who had been detained by ICE.  Mamdani had requested her release during the meeting and later received a follow-up phone call from the President granting his request.

Between and release and housing announcement, there was no shortage of praise for Mamdani while, thought at the same time, some skeptics questioned whether Mamdani was selling out on his pledge to stand up to Trump.

Emergency Response

Mamdani received some of his first substantive criticism when a snowstorm pummeled the city just weeks into his term. 

The storm, which brought both a cold spell and a foot of snowfall, left about 20 homeless people dead.  For weeks, piles of filthy snow and uncollected bags of garbage covered city streets.

The blame largely fell on Mamdani, with many accusing him of being unprepared.

But when the city faced another snowstorm a month later — this one, the biggest in over a decade — Mamdani had seemingly learned from his mistakes.

In a move that initially drew scorn from those decrying a “socialist agenda” that dumped the city’s government’s responsibility on others, Mamdani publicly offered $30 an hour to anyone willing to shovel snow across the city. 

When the snow was cleared in record time, however, few beyond those likely to criticize the Mayor regardless of the occasion had anything negative to say about the initiative.

Social Media

Some achievements are intangible. You can measure success by, say, a city’s budget surplus its homeless population.  But how a politicians move someone?

Mamdani both during the campaign and as the Mayor, has been particularly adept at the use of social media to make New Yorkers feel included.

When he announced school closures during the second blizzard, he did it with a viral video in which he told kids to be safe but have fun sledding.

When he announced his childcare funding initiative, the setup included a tiny child-sized desk beside his own, which went viral.

When FIFA announced that eight world cup games would be played in New York, Mamdani released a video of himself playing soccer while talking about his push to make sure that tickets to the games are affordable. 

Even Mamdani’s response to our nation’s military action in Iran this past weekend went viral. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s statement on Instagram received 388 likes. By contract, Mamdani’s received 693,000 likes. That’s a difference of about 1,800-fold.

The Verdict

Some would argue that it’s too early to fully form an opinion on Mamdani’s performance just yet.

I disagree.

By nearly every metric, Mamdani is succeeding.

He has built powerful partnerships and is already delivering on his policy goals,.

But perception is also half the battle. And in the eyes of the people he was elected to represent, he is wildly popular.

Mamdani’s antagonists have likely been waiting to pounce at his first stumbles. But despite the immense scrutiny he’s under, he has given them few openings.  And when he came up short, like in the case of the blizzard, he was able to change course by the time the next one came around.

I would contend that his biggest hurdle may not be those who have already made up their mind against him, but rather the true believers who, whether intentionally or not, have put him on a pedestal.

What some may praise as compromise, others will see as caving.  Building partnerships with those he disagrees with is sure to strike some as kowtowing. 

Mamdani still has a long way to go to fulfill a number of his campaign promises like freezing the rent and making New York City’s buses free.

Some might even question whether he’ll get there in one year or even one term.  But Zohran Mamdan is not one of them.