Aurelia Butler

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    Trump Faces the Biggest Test Yet of His Second-Term Political Power

    If President Trump gets his domestic policy bill over the finish line, it will be a vivid demonstration of his continuing hold over the Republican Party.President Trump has gotten almost everything he has wanted from the Republican-controlled Congress since he took office in January.G.O.P. lawmakers approved his nominees, sometimes despite their doubts. They ceded their power over how federal dollars are distributed, impinging on constitutional authority. And they have cheered his overhaul of the federal bureaucracy, even as he has bypassed the legislative body’s oversight of federal agencies.But now, Mr. Trump is pressuring Republicans to fall in line behind his sprawling domestic policy bill, even though it has elements that could put their party’s hold on Congress in greater peril in next year’s midterm elections. Fiscal hawks are appalled by estimates that the bill would add at least $3.3 trillion to the country’s ballooning debt, while moderate Republicans are concerned about the steep cuts to the safety net.Yet Mr. Trump is still getting his way — at least so far. The Senate narrowly passed the bill Tuesday, with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie. The bill now heads back to the House, where the president can only lose three votes, and where anger among both moderates and conservatives about changes made by the Senate is running high.Getting the bill through the House may be the biggest test yet of Mr. Trump’s second-term political power. If he gets the bill over the finish line, it will be another legislative victory and a vivid demonstration of his continuing hold over the party.The process of driving the legislation forward has exposed deep divisions among congressional Republicans, as well as concern about the huge political risks of supporting the bill. In the end, fear of crossing Mr. Trump kept defections in the Senate to a barely manageable level.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    New Yorkers Embraced Ranked-Choice Voting. Mamdani’s Win Proves It.

    Here are five takeaways from New York City’s second experience with ranked-choice voting, and how it helped Zohran Mamdani secure a decisive victory.Four years ago, New Yorkers had their first brush with ranked-choice voting, but few seemed ready to embrace it. Voters seemed puzzled by the process, and the Democratic mayoral candidates were hesitant to work together and make cross-endorsements to help each other.This year was different.All the campaigns tried to game the system, which allows voters to rank up to five candidates in order of preference. Organizations made group endorsements; campaigns told voters to avoid ranking specific candidates; and several contenders made cross-endorsement deals.Most of this benefited Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman and democratic socialist who officially won the Democratic primary for mayor on Tuesday after ranked choices were counted.He received nearly 100,000 additional votes from New Yorkers who ranked him lower on their ballots.Those votes helped Mr. Mamdani beat his main rival, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, by 12 percent — a decisive victory that shocked Democrats in the city and across the nation.Here are five takeaways from the ranked-choice count.Brad Lander, left, and Zohran Mamdani reached a cross-endorsement deal that added ranked-choice votes for Mr. Mamdani.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesLander’s Endorsement Helped MamdaniFor much of the campaign, Brad Lander, the city comptroller, was stuck in third place.The only citywide elected official in the race, Mr. Lander was expected to be the standard-bearer for the left flank of the party. But Mr. Mamdani’s charisma, social media savvy and focus on affordability catapulted him past Mr. Lander in the polls.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Zohran Mamdani Wins N.Y.C. Mayoral Primary in Decisive 12-Point Victory

    Mr. Mamdani roundly defeated Andrew M. Cuomo in the Democratic contest, widening his primary-night lead by a significant margin once ranked-choice tabulations were run.Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist whose blend of populist ideas and personal magnetism catapulted his upstart candidacy, won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City by a significant margin, according to The Associated Press.The race was called for Mr. Mamdani on Tuesday afternoon, shortly after New York City’s Board of Elections released its tabulation of ranked-choice ballots.Mr. Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens, won with 56 percent of the vote. Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo came in second with 44 percent. The board will certify the final vote in mid-July.Mr. Mamdani, 33, now moves on to a contested general election in November, where he will face Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who opted out of the primary to run as an independent; Curtis Sliwa, the Guardian Angels founder running on the Republican line; and Jim Walden, a lawyer also running on an independent line.Mr. Cuomo, for now, is also running on an independent line, but he has not yet decided whether he intends to continue campaigning. Mr. Mamdani is expected to be the favorite in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by six to one.“I am humbled by the support of more than 545,000 New Yorkers in last week’s primary,” Mr. Mamdani said in a statement. “This is just the beginning of our expanding coalition to make New York City affordable. And we will do it together.”New York City Mayoral Primary Election ResultsGet live results and maps from the 2025 New York City primary election.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    How Zohran Mamdani Stunned New York and Won the Primary for Mayor

    On a frigid night in January, Zohran Mamdani, a little-known state lawmaker running for mayor, climbed into a halal cart in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park for a plate of chicken and rice.With cameras rolling, the fresh-faced Democrat mainlined a takeout container as he explained in simple terms how the city’s arcane permitting process was squeezing vendors and driving “halalflation.”The 90-second video went viral, but it also offered a more direct sign of Mr. Mamdani’s growing reach. Mahmoud Mousa, the Egyptian-born vendor next to him onscreen, said that his Brooklyn neighbors, friends and family inundated him with questions about the 33-year-old candidate in a suit and tie.“Politicians never care about the problems we have,” he said in an interview last week. “But he is saying he is going to take care of how I live.”Five months later, the episode illustrates how Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, broke New York’s political mold and pulled off a seismic upset to claim the Democratic nomination for mayor over far more seasoned rivals, including former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.The victory sent shock waves through American politics, electrifying progressives, alarming some party leaders and handing Republicans fresh fodder to attack Democrats. It also set the stage for a pitched general election battle against Mayor Eric Adams, as Mr. Mamdani now confronts an antagonistic business class and many Jewish New Yorkers alarmed by his stark criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Dana Carvey Calls His Biden Impression a ‘Delicate Thing’

    For his portrayal of the former president on “Saturday Night Live,” Carvey admitted that he had to toe a careful line.Dana Carvey, the comedian and actor, said that impersonating former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. during the just completed 50th season of “Saturday Night Live” was a challenge because he said he believed Biden “was compromised mentally.”Carvey made the comment on a recent episode of his and David Spade’s podcast “Fly on the Wall” while discussing his portrayal of Biden, a Democrat, during his re-election bid in 2024. “It was a delicate thing in the comedy world,” Carvey added. “There were a lot of people that did not want to do anything that would kind of ding him in, like, an awkward way.”Carvey, a former “S.N.L.” cast member known for his many impersonations, including his portrayal of George H.W. Bush in the 1980s and 1990s, said that in order to make his version of Biden funny, it had to be recognizable, which is why Carvey mastered the former president’s squint and chuckle, as well as his lapsing into non sequiturs like insisting on “being serious right now,” even if what he last said was not a joke.In one episode that aired in late September, Carvey as Biden joined Kamala Harris, played by Maya Rudolph, at a rally after she won the Democratic nomination. He slowly walked to the podium and tossed out a number of Biden’s signature phrases (“by the way,” “guess what?”) before being rushed offstage, only to wander back. In another skit from November, after Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee, won the election, Carvey’s Biden advises him to watch how he talks as president but stammers over his own words in doing so.It took two years for Carvey to master his impression of Biden, he said, and that the first six months of Biden’s presidency did not provide much material until he heard the president whisper and yell.“Biden eventually was my favorite because he had like 10 hooks,” Carvey said. “I loved it. It was in entering and exiting, but it was a real challenge to make it acceptable.”Biden’s age and mental state became flash points during the 2024 presidential election cycle. Conversations about it reached a fever pitch shortly after the first presidential debate in June, in which Biden meandered and mumbled through his answers. Weeks later and under intense pressure from members of his party, Biden dropped out of the race.Since then, there has been a litany of discussions and even books that examine the former president’s decline while in the White House. In May, Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. More

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    Mamdani Has Won the Primary. Now On to November.

    Few expected Zohran Mamdani to win so decisively. Can he do it again in November’s general election against another host of challengers?This is The Sprint for City Hall, a limited-run series on the critical Democratic primary race for mayor.We have a winner.Hi, I’m Dean Chang, the editor running The New York Times’s coverage of the mayoral primary. Welcome to the ninth and last edition of The Sprint. The last time I was involved in a limited-run series, viewership was so low that Bravo decided to run the last two episodes back to back on the same day.In this edition, we’ll examine some of the biggest reasons behind Zohran Mamdani’s significant margin of victory in the Democratic primary, and look ahead to the general election in November.A side note: As the primary ends, so does The Sprint. Could we be back in the fall? Stay tuned. For now, thanks for spending some time with us, including this bonus post-primary edition. (Take that, Bravo.)Zohran Mamdani, Curtis Sliwa, Eric Adams, Andrew Cuomo and Jim Walden are currently all set to be on the ballot in November.Scott Heins, Victor J. Blue and Hilary Swift for The New York Times; Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times; Kholood Eid for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Ask The Times About New York City’s Mayoral Race

    Have questions about New York City’s mayoral race or politics in the city? We want to hear them.This year’s mayoral race in New York City is already historic in many ways. What questions do you have about the candidates, the electoral process, City Hall or our coverage of local politics? We’ll get them answered by our beat reporters and share the results in future editions of New York Today or our flagship newsletter, The Morning. (Sign up for The Morning newsletter here.)Ask The Times More

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    Taking From the Poor and Giving to the Rich Is Not Populism

    “I love the poorly educated,” President Trump declared during the 2016 campaign. His intense support for the “big, beautiful” $4.5 trillion tax-and-spending bill now before Congress shows that he has a unique way of demonstrating his affection.Republicans are on the verge of enacting Trump’s upwardly distributive fiscal policy measure, which has become an extreme test of the loyalty of his more downscale MAGA supporters, who not only oppose the bill but stand to bear the brunt of its negative consequences.In its current form, which is changing by the hour, the measure, known popularly as B.B.B., would provide the upper classes, including Trump’s allies and donor base — corporations and the rich — with tax cuts worth approximately $4.45 trillion over 10 years. The measure would offset the cost with the largest reductions in safety net programs in recent decades, if not all time, for those on the lower tiers of the income distribution.This pared-back social spending would adversely affect a large bloc of rural and exurban Republicans who played a crucial role in putting their party in control of the House and Senate, and Trump in the White House.“You can very safely say,” Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the liberal Center for American Progress, told The Washington Post, that “this is the biggest cut to programs for low-income Americans ever.”Many of the details of the legislation remain in flux as the Senate continues to vote on amendments. If the Senate approves the legislation, the House and the Senate will still have to come to agreement on a final version for the measure to become law.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More