Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old who soared to the lead in the New York City mayoral Democratic primary, describes himself as a democratic socialist. But some politicians and social media posts falsely labelled him a communist.
President Donald Trump called Mamdani “a 100% Communist Lunatic”, in a June 25 Truth Social post.
Nick Sortor, a conservative podcast host, wrote June 23 on X, “Zohran Mamdani is not even a socialist. He’s a full on COMMUNIST,” sharing a video clip of Mamdani calling for a network of city-owned grocery stores. “Even FURTHER left than Bernie Sanders. He wants government-run grocery stores.”
Ben Shapiro, cofounder of conservative website The Daily Wire, said on his podcast, “The big news of the day: A communist is likely to be the next mayor of New York City.”
Representative Elise Stefanik also wrote on X that Mamdani is a “communist”.
Mamdani’s platform calls for making transportation, housing and groceries more affordable, but experts say he hasn’t espoused key tenets of communism, such as government takeover of industry and private property.
“Mamdani is NOT a communist,” wrote Anna Grzymala-Busse, Stanford University professor of international studies, in an email to PolitiFact. “Communism involves a centrally planned economy, with no market forces. Prices and quantities are set by a central government authority. There is no democratic political competition, and instead a single party rules the country. He is not calling for any of this.”
Accusing Democrats of being communists or communist sympathisers is a frequent misleading attack line by some Republicans. It is a red scare tactic that has existed in US politics for decades, but has been transformed by the success of some democratic socialists, including US Senator Bernie Sanders.
Mamdani made national headlines June 24 after former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo conceded the primary. When the city completes the ranked choice voting process, Mamdani is expected to win. Mamdani’s office did not respond to our requests for comment.
In November, Mamdani will face Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, the founder of civilian crime-fighting group Guardian Angels, and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent. Cuomo left open the door to running as an independent.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Mamdani’s platform calls for some city-owned grocery stores, other affordability policies
Mamdani, who represents part of the Queens borough in the New York State Assembly, identifies as a democratic socialist.
The New York City Democratic Socialists of America endorsed Mamdani, who is a member.
The group defines its goal as “to collectively own the key economic drivers that dominate our lives, such as energy production and transportation”, and to have “a system where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighbourhoods, and society”.
Mamdani’s platform includes freezing rent for tenants in buildings with preexisting caps on price increases between lease terms. He also proposed creating city-owned grocery stores, and said in a June interview with Spectrum News NY1 that he would start with one grocery store in each borough modelled on municipality-owned stores in Kansas.
He also proposed free buses and child care, and raising the corporate tax rate and the minimum wage.
Mamdani does not call for getting rid of private ownership. One of the goals included on his website is to “make it faster, easier, and cheaper to start and run a business”.
He told The New York Times that he changed his mind about the role of the private market in housing construction, saying, “I clearly recognise now that there is a very important role to be played.” The story links to Mamdani’s website, which calls for the public sector to build affordable housing but not take over all housing.
What are the differences between communism and democratic socialism?
We sent highlights from Mamdani’s platform to seven experts across academic disciplines including political science, law and anthropology. None concluded that Mamdani is a communist.
“The idea that Mamdani is a communist is an absurd slander,” said Geoffrey Kurtz, associate professor of political science at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York.
When US politicians use the term democratic socialism, they are referring to generous social insurance programmes often available in European countries, such as heavily subsidised child care, along with high tax rates, if needed, to pay for education and healthcare.
Mamdani doesn’t seek to do away with private property or advocate a government takeover of any industry, said Ted Henken, a Baruch College professor. Instead, Mamdani proposes targeted interventions to tackle high living costs in New York City, Henken said.
“The New Yorkers who support him seem to do so not because of any communist ideology on his or their part, but because he proposes to address this crisis of affordability,” Henken said.
“For example, his city-run grocery store idea does not propose to take over or do away with the private grocery chains (they already receive city subsidies) but to complement them with nonprofit city-run stores,” Henken said.
Although Mamdani said in a campaign TikTok video that he would “redirect funds from corporate supermarkets to city-owned grocery stores”, he did not say he would get rid of corporate markets. Mamdani also said city-owned markets would work with privately owned small businesses and farms.
Political theory experts said many of Mamdani’s proposals have existed in other democracies for decades.
“Many western democracies – from France to Canada – have policies such as free or heavily subsidised child care and public transit,” said Oxana Shevel, a Tufts University associate professor of comparative politics.
Under a communist agenda, the government would own everything and entirely control prices, not only rent control or operating some supermarkets. And under communism, there are no political parties other than the communist party.
“This is not what he’s advocating,” Shevel said. “So no, he’s not a ‘communist’.”
Democratic socialism emerged as an alternative to communism, said Harvey Klehr, an Emory University expert on the history of American communism.
“At least in theory, they reject such communist concepts as the vanguard of the proletariat and the communist hostility to representative democracy, as well as the communist belief in state ownership of the means of production,” Klehr said. “That said, there are a number of issues on which they agree, including hostility to capitalism.”
Experts said there are reasonable critiques of Mamdani’s proposals, but that doesn’t make his proposals communist.
Our ruling
Trump said Mamdani is a communist.
Mamdani’s mayoral platform proposes making New York City more affordable, including via free buses and day care, rent control and city-owned grocery stores. That is not akin to communism, a system in which the government controls the means of production and takes over private businesses. Mamdani has not called for the elimination of private ownership.
He also hasn’t called for eliminating democracy and political parties, another tenet of communism.
We rate this statement False.
Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this fact-check
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