Marlin's Multiple Mamdani Meltdowns
Newsmax columnist George J. Marlin can't stop having freakouts over Zohran Mamdani -- especially since he won the race for New York City mayor.
Newsmax columnist George J. Marlin has long been into conspiracy theories. For instance, he spent a March 2022 column buying into the conspiracy that there are U.S.-run biolabs in Ukraine, insisting that Tulsi Gabbard, later director on national intelligence, told the truth and that she was being persecuted by liberals for doing so. As ConWebWatch detailed at the time, While there are biolabs in Ukraine, the U.S. is not running them and there is no evidence it is. By claiming otherwise, Gabbard was, in fact, spreading Russian disinformation.
When Zorhan Mamdani ran for New York City mayor, Marlin went into full meltdown mode. For instance:
Zohran Mamdani followed the playbook of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D.Y., (AOC), promising lots of free stuff to young, coddled left-wingers who were indoctrinated in leftist propaganda during their college years.
Mamdani pledged to stack the New York City Housing Board with members who would “freeze rents” on 400,000 rent-stabilized apartments.
He vowed to eliminate bus fares, provide free childcare, open government-owned supermarkets, go after hospitals that do not perform gender affirmative care, spend $65 million annually to promote such care, and create an office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs.
A past supporter of the “Defund the Police,” movement he declined to say if he would hire more law enforcement, but said he will empty jail cells, eliminate police overtime, cut back police patrols in minority neighborhoods, and repeal all criminal misdemeanors.
To pay for all of this — which will cost at least $10 billion annually — he told his followers that he would increase corporate taxes and Gotham’s income tax on the top 1% of taxpayers — who are already paying the highest combined state and city income taxes in the nation.
[…]
The New York Democratic Party is now in the hands of the radical left wing whose policies will destroy the city both fiscally and economically.
— June 27 column
Since winning New York City’s Democratic primary in June, Zohran Mamdani has been attempting to walk back many of his far-left public comments.
But no matter how hard he tries, his words will always haunt him for the simple reason that once a Marxist, always a Marxist.
Because Marxists, like Mamdani, mistakenly believe that their economic and social pronouncements are historically determined to unfold in time, they will never truly abandon their ideological tenets.
[…]
While “The Quotable Mamdani” is only a sampling of the musings of the mayoral candidate — they should be enough fodder to make any reasonable voter to think twice before pulling the lever for him on Election Day, November 2025.
— Aug. 4 column
At this critical juncture, it is incumbent upon sane Democrats to vociferously oppose Mamdani and his cockeyed socialist platitudes.
If they fail to stop him in November, they will be responsible for his socialist virus infecting New York City and spreading across the nation, leaving in its tracks, fiscal, economic, and social carnage.
— Aug. 14 column
Most every day the Democratic-Socialist candidate for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, releases a statement or policy that proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, he’s not fit to lead the City.
[…]
If the city is to be saved from fiscal destruction and an exodus of upper- and middle-class taxpayers, Mamdani must be stopped.
Democrats should follow the lead of their state party chairman, Jay Jacobs, who has declined to support Mamdani because in his judgment, the Democratic Socialists platform does not “represent the principles or policies of the Democratic Party.”
— Oct. 10 column
In the New York City mayoral debate, Democratic Socialist candidate Zohran Momdani refused to denounce Hamas terrorists, refused to denounce Hassan Piker who said America deserved 9/11, refused to denounce “Globalize the Intifada,” and declined to admit that Israel had a right to exist.
This should come as no surprise to voters.
[…]
The bombastic rhetoric of Mamdani and his radical confreres also explains why hate crimes against Jews have been rising in New York City. “In 2024,” The New York Times has reported “52% of the reported hate crimes are against Jews, according to the police. The trend has continued in the first quarter of 2025, when 60% of hate crimes were committed against Jews.”
It’s estimated that 13% of the city’s registered voters — about 598,000 — are Jewish.
On Election Day they will be a key group that determines the outcome of the mayoral race.
If Mamdani is to be stopped, Orthodox, Reform, and Hasidic Jews must unite and get to the polls on Nov. 4, 2025.
— Oct. 21 column
Victory meltdown
When Mamdani won the election, Marlin predictably disapproved in a Nov. 6 column:
Most political sages in New York believed that if there was a record voter turnout on Election Day (2 million plus), Andrew Cuomo would win the race for mayor.
However, while the ballot box totals broke records going back to 1969 with over 2.3 million people voting, the Socialist candidate, Zohran Mamdani, still managed to beat Cuomo, 50% to 41%.
How did Mamdani, a radical anti-Israel and anti-police candidate, manage to beat Cuomo in four out of five boroughs?
The short answer: a new political demographic.
New York is no longer the city Andrew Cuomo, and I grew up in.
[…]
There is also a large contingent of young white college-educated voters who have rejected the center-right views of their parents and grandparents.
They have incredible self-confidence that borders on arrogance and incredible expectations.
They believe they are entitled to instant status, security, all the material comforts and lots of “free” stuff from the government.
All those voters bought into Mandani’s socialist vision and formed a new coalition that put him over the top on Election Day.
[…]
Mamdani has every right to savor his victory.
But my guess is that it will not take very long after he is sworn into office in January, before his groupies learn that the Socialist vision that looked good on paper never works in practice.
Weren’t right-wingers telling us when Donald Trump was elected that elections have consequences? Seems like Marlin is whining about facing consequences in a way they didn’t when Trump won.
Marlin complained in a Dec. 1 column:
Zohran Mamdani’s election night victory speech was the most disdainful I’ve ever heard.
The ever-smiling Dr. Jekyll turned into the vicious Mr. Hyde.
His attitude was, I won and if you don’t like it, tough.
How is that attitude different from that of Donald Trump? Marlin didn’t explain. Instead, he groused some more:
Most troublesome was how he closed his speech, “I am a Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.”
To help implement his socialist platform that includes free buses, that will cost $800 million annually; the $8 billion universal childcare plan; the $65 million program to finance hormone therapy for children, and the creation of an office of LGBTQIA+ affairs, Mamdani is appointing or considering a collection of far-left comrades to run his administration.
[…]
To finance Mamdani’s socialist plans, and to address the projected $8 billion operating budget deficit, the city’s taxes will have to be raised through the roof.
And if he gets the okay from the state assembly and the governor (which seems likely) to increase the city corporate income tax from 7.25% to 11.55%, the combined state, city, and local corporate surcharges will push the total rate to an astounding 22.5%.
Add that number to the federal government’s 21% corporate tax and it will be “Katie bar the door.”
Captains of the finance and insurance industries will be packing their bags and heading south on I-95.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s decisions and his appointees thus far, indicate he’s positioning his administration to destroy the city’s economic and tax base.
Taking office
Marlin’s meltdowns continued once Mamdani took office at the start of 2026. For instance:
Now Gov. Hochul must deal with a Democratic-Socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who proclaimed at his inaugural on Jan. 1 that he would “replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”
Readers will recall that Gov. Hochul was in no rush to endorse Mamdani after his surprise June primary victory.
But fearing a political backlash that could empower her far left primary opponent in 2026, she reluctantly endorsed Mamdani in September.
[…]
So far, Mayor Mamdani has declined to endorse Hochul for re-election.
And do not be surprised if Mamdani endorses her primary challenger, Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgardo, if she does not grant his entire wish list.
Governor Hochul may learn too late in the 2026 election cycle that being socialist-lite doesn’t cut it with radical ideologues and find herself shuffling back to her hometown of Buffalo at year end.
— Jan. 20 column
Then there’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is facing a $10 billion budgetary deficit before he adds in the $8 billion in free stuff he promised to his supporters.
To help balance the mayor’s budget, his confreres in the state Legislature will happily increase the city’s personal and corporate taxes, and Mamdani will gleefully raise property taxes in “white” neighborhoods.
— Feb. 9 column
Marlin raged at New York state for alleged Medicaid fraud in his Feb. 24 column:
Medicaid waste, fraud, and abuse have reached pandemic levels — particularly in my home state of New York.
After Medicaid was established in 1965, then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller quickly sent a bill to the New york State Assembly to adopt it.
Liberal Democrats had a field day.
They added numerous amendments that offered coverage not just for welfare recipients, but also for those they more broadly defined as “poor.”
The law also mandated that welfare officials must seek out potential beneficiaries, and it exempted all relatives from any responsibility for the care of indigent family members.
It was designed to make dependency a way of life in New York.
And so, it did.
[…]
The state budget of Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., for the fiscal year beginning on April 1, calls for Medicaid costs to increase by 11.5% — four times the inflation rate.
[…]
Unsustainable Medicaid costs, never ending fraud, diminishing quality of hospital care, declining accountability.
New York is truly the poster child for Medicaid waste, fraud and abuse.
Marlin ranted at both Mamdani and Hochul in his March 7 column:
New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has been whining that his $128 billion budget, which calls for $5 billion in new spending, is short somewhere between $5 billion and $7 billion.
Instead of eliminating waste or freezing expenses to balance the bloated budget, Mamdani is demanding that Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., and the state legislature raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy to close the gap.
And if they fail to do so he has threatened to raise property taxes on every homeowner in the city.
Mamdani’s blackmail scheme would raise the average property tax rate on three million homes and 100,000 commercial properties by 9.5%.
[…]
Combined with federal taxes, the top rates for city residents are among the highest in the world, reaching 52% on wages and salaries and 38.6 % on capital gains.”
And if Mamdani has his way, the combined taxes on the wealthy will be the highest in the universe!!
Sound like Marlin is one of those super-rich New Yorkers who would likely see the impact of higher taxes.
Marlin continued his raging about New York in general and New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani in particular, focusing on the latter in a March 26 column:
After winning several political primaries and elections, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have become increasingly strident in promoting their leftist ideology.
For example, in New York City, the DSA is pressing their favorite son, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and state and city legislators, to seek approval of an array of tax increases on middle class families. The proposals include:
—Raising state and city taxes on people making over $300 thousand annually.
Marlin didn’t explain how, exactly, people making more than $300,000 annually are “middle class.” He went on to rant:
Meanwhile, back in New York City, the DSA’s favorite couple, Mayor Zohran and Mrs. Mamdani, have been thumbing their noses at the Jewish community.
They hosted a dinner in March at Gracie Mansion for the anti-Israel activist, Mahmoud Khalil. Responding to the public blowback after photos of the feast appeared in newspapers, Mamdani said, “As the mayor of
New York City, I believe it is my responsibility to fight for the safety and for the rights of each and every New Yorker.
“The only charge that was levied against [Khalil] was the exercising of his first amendment rights.”
In other words, anti-Jewish hate speech is okay.
Marlin offered no examples of how Khalil supposedly engaged in “anti-Jewish hate speech,” or how his advocacy of Palestinian rights is not “first amendment rights.”
Marlin further ranted against Mamdani in his May 1 column:
Ideologues, the renowned political philosopher, Hannah Arendt wrote, “function in a world of no sense.”
As for their ideological thinking, she concluded, it “proceeds with a consistency that exists no way in the realm of reality.”
That definition aptly applies to New York’s glib mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who has been hit over the head with reality since he was sworn into office on Jan. 1 of this year.
The New York Times agrees.
On Mamdani’s 100th day in office, the left-wing newspaper conceded, “As New York’s first modern mayor to wholly embrace democratic socialism, Mr. Mandani has little actual power to impose that ideology on city government.”
In other words, he is floundering.
Marlin repeated his claim that rich people are really middle class:
To address the $5 billion shortfall in his bloated budget proposal, Mamdani wants to raise income taxes on the so-called rich and corporations. If implemented, top earners will be paying the highest combined Federal, state and local taxes in the nation.
But, Mamdani has had to face the reality that many on the city council don’t buy his tax and spend policies. The council led by the tough- minded speaker, Julie Menin, made it clear that the mayor’s plan to raise property taxes was dead on arrival.
Marlin went on to take a shot at New York Gov. Kathy Hochul:
Gov. Hochul, who is up for reelection, is also in no rush to approve tax increases.
But to placate the mayor, she announced support of a “pied-à-terre” tax on non-residents who own a second home in the city worth more than $5 million. The tax is projected to haul in $500 million annually.
This tax is a safe one for the governor because those who will pay it can’t vote.
Marlin didn’t explain how people who own expensive second houses in New York City are not residents or why they cannot be. He went on to huff:
As for Mamdani, instead of quietly thanking the governor for throwing him a fiscal bone, he went on an ideological rampage. On a video with eerie background music, Mamdani boasted on April 15, income tax filing day, “Well today, we’re taxing the rich.”
He went on to joyously single out one of his prey, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, who owns a $238 million, 24,000 square foot apartment.
Actually, Griffin owns three apartments in New York City, not just that massive one (and who he actually lives in Miami), and the hedge fund chief’s net worth is $48 billion.