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      ‘Like we won the championship’: New Yorkers celebrate Mamdani’s win with cheers, tears and DSA chants

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      Inside an election watch party hosted by the Democratic Socialists of America at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple in Fort Greene, under the din of pet-nat wines being cracked open, there was a sense of nervous anticipation. “I’m not sure if this is an accurate recreation of Solomon’s Temple,” said one supporter in a Zohran Mamdani T-shirt. “This is like a who’s who of everyone I’ve slept with,” said another.The suspense didn’t last long. Just after 9.30pm, someone jumped on the mic to announce that news outlets had called it: a record number of New Yorkers had cast ballots in this electric – and often ugly – race between Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa, ultimately choosing the 34-year-old democratic socialist of seemingly boundless energy who had shocked party establishment in the primary by winning on a clear-eyed affordability agenda. The DJ immediately started playing I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas. And, indeed, tonight was a good, good night for those in the room, who erupted in tears, hugs and twerking.Mamdani will be the first Muslim mayor of New York and its youngest in over a century – but not its first immigrant mayor, nor its first mayor to champion socialist ideals. New Yorkers celebrated his monumental election at official and unofficial parties spread across the five boroughs.“I’ve been a DSA member for over 10 years,” said 40-year-old health department worker Will, at the Fort Greene party. “This just shows that our politics are not radical, that New Yorkers actually think what we believe is sensible, and maybe the rest of the country is ready for sensible, commonsense, Democratic socialism.”As the dancefloor was in full swing (even as the house lights remained dangerously bright), Ellie, a 28-year-old bartender from Bed-Stuy, felt “absolutely ecstatic”. “This is the first time we’ve had hope in so long. I can’t remember a – ”She cut herself short to scream along to the chorus of Kelly Clarkson’s Since U Been Gone.These are the people who fought for Mamdani when he was polling at 1%, who celebrated his socialist principles when others said they disqualified him. As his speech played, there was a sense not just of political hope but a project come to fruition, the work of a lifetime building to a moment that might change the city – and all soundtracked to the 90s Eurodance anthem Freed from Desire.Across the borough, in what has been affectionately called by pollster Michael Lange “the commie corridor” – so called because Mamdani pulled autocrat numbers there in the primary – the line for a dance club on the edge of Bushwick and Ridgewood was equally lively.Hundreds queued up on the sidewalk outside Nowadays for another DSA watch party, cheering and holding signs, and, in the case of one woman, a cardboard cutout of Mamdani. Those who made it in wore various unofficial merch – Hot Girls for Zohran, Bisexuals for Zohran, at least one pair of hot pants with “Zohran” blazed on the butt – and bummed cigarettes or sipped mixed drinks as they waited for the race to be called. They were confident, if slightly scarred from past election upsets. “He’s good. We’re all just traumatized from 2016,” a man in a black beret said to no one in particular.The crowd was a genuine mix: Black, white, brown, young folks and old folks, party gays, butch lesbians, bridge-and-tunnel kids who couldn’t even vote in the election but felt its reverberations nonetheless. Amber Pease, 25, lives in Nassau county in Long Island. Her inability to cast a vote didn’t stop her from traveling in to volunteer for Zohran’s campaign. She wants to get a job and move into the city soon. “I’ve been waiting to see a good progressive candidate, and to have one so close to home, it gives me a lot of hope.”View image in fullscreenWhen the election was called for Mamdani, the cheers could be heard inside and on the street, and someone started a “DSA! DSA!” chant (not to be mistaken with a “USA! USA!” chant). Soon a representative for the DSA named Kareem took the stage. He referenced Mamdani’s meteoric rise. “This didn’t just start last year,” he said. “This is the culmination of years of work.” He spoke of the progressive New Yorkers who campaigned against the Iraq war, and the Occupy Wall Street movement, and those who stumped for Bernie Sanders. He also noted how Cuomo’s campaign trafficked a message of fear, with Mamdani’s “antidote” being solidarity. At Nowadays, the victory felt communal.In Astoria, Mamdani’s home turf, hijabi girls wearing keffiyehs raced to watch parties while uncles outside hookah bars kept an eye on the streets. (“We like this guy Mamdani. We’ll be watching him,” one said.) A large crowd gathered outside of Moka & Co, a Yemeni cafe, to hear the results come in over loudspeaker.Nisa Ganiestry, a 41-year-old homemaker living in Astoria, stood with her young son. She recently worked to secure her citizenship so that she could vote for Mamdani; she’s known Mamdani since he became Astoria’s assemblyman in 2021. Over the past five years, she said, Astoria has rapidly gentrified. “We couldn’t afford newer space, we couldn’t afford to get groceries, but I am really, really optimistic that he can fix the situation.”“We’re in the belly of the beast here in New York. We’re the financial capital of the world,” said Shivana Jorawar, an organizer based in the North Bronx. “If we can elect a socialist mayor in New York, we can do that anywhere.”View image in fullscreenPassing cars, buses, and cabs honked in celebration with the crowd as the night wore on. Every now and then, chants of free Palestine would ring out. Many cheered, some cried, and all waited patiently for their new mayor to speak.For Shehab Chowdhury, 34, co-chair of Bangladeshi-Americans for Political Progress, Mamdani’s participation in a 2021 hunger strike to win debt relief for taxi drivers and dedication to the Palestinian cause earned his respect. He said Islamophobic attacks on Mamdani have been felt throughout the entire Muslim community. “As Zohran has said: for so long we’ve stood in the shadows. Now it’s time to stand in the light.”Zayed Chowdhury (no relation), who runs a cybersecurity startup in Virginia, grew up in the projects of New York in the 1980s. He can’t vote in New York any more, but the election still mattered. “We were here when there were no Muslims in New York. My grandfather has a plaque that says he’s the second Muslim ever to land on Ellis Island,” Chowdhury said. “In 85, when I was in kindergarten, they didn’t even know what a Muslim was. Thirty years later, it’s like we won the championship.”View image in fullscreenEarlier in the night, in Jackson Heights, one of New York’s most diverse neighborhoods, Cherry Ann Chishti had a Mamdani sign outside the window of her halal restaurant. “Finally someone younger, someone with new ideas, someone connected to the people has arrived to make real change,” said Chishti, 38, who also works as a behavioral analyst in Ozone Park. “The bussing. The healthcare. I work with kids with autism. Every dollar we invest in childcare has a return of $11-17. They grow up more social. And it allows their moms, their dads to focus better on their jobs. Better workers means more taxes that benefit the city.”As midnight approached, Paul Aljoon, 62, exited a bodega in Bushwick yelling: “Mamdani!” He had canvassed for the candidate since the primaries. Now he’s looking ahead to Mamdani’s inauguration, and the daunting task of making the city affordable that awaits the new mayor. “Let him settle in office,” Aljoon said. “Let him get his team together. And then, move on. He has to do stuff with sanitation, then the police department, and then hope that no virus comes back to New York.”For Daniel Dale, a 23-year-old actor from Bed-Stuy and an immigrant from Colombia, it was time to bask in the moment. “I’ve never felt in the right place,” Dale said. But Mamdani’s message has drawn him in. “It’s full of a couple simple things that everybody knows they want.” For Dale, as many others across the city, this was an emotional night. More

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      Nobody likes a sore loser – but Cuomo declines to bow out gracefully

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      At least Andrew Cuomo’s last act in politics came at a fancy venue.While Cuomo held his election night party at the Ziegfeld Ballroom, which describes itself in its own words as a “luxury event venue built on Broadway’s golden era”, it didn’t feel like a golden era on Tuesday, when Cuomo didn’t so much bow out of the race as aggressively posture and snort his way out of it.The night started on an ominous tone, with (Sending Out an) SOS by Rhetta Young blaring from Ziegfeld’s speakers. Was the Cuomo campaign sending out plaintive messages through music? If so, it was a confusing message: the next song was Blame It on the Boogie by the Jacksons.Cuomo had been well behind in the polls, but there was a relatively optimistic vibe at the party, as people enjoyed the free bar and watched huge TV screens. Cuomo’s name was displayed on tables, banners and, intriguingly, on little electronic screens above the men’s urinals.But the mood wouldn’t last. Zohran Mamdani’s victory was announced at 9.35pm, prompting dismay in the ballroom.“I feel very disappointed. I’m just staring at the TV hoping that the numbers will change, just in disbelief,” said Tusha Diaz, from the Bronx. She carried on staring at the TV. If anything, the numbers got worse. With 90% of the votes in on Tuesday night, Mamdani had more than 50% of the vote; Cuomo languished at 41%.“I don’t want to cry in front of people, but I feel heartbroken,” Diaz said. She voted for Cuomo because he was a “great governor” who did a lot for the Bronx, she said. She wasn’t optimistic about Mamdani.“I feel I don’t know what’s gonna happen to New York City. I mean, I have two grandchildren. I don’t know what they’re gonna expect with this guy, you know, with all these radical ideas that he had. Will they be safe?”Anthony T Jones was literally in disbelief as Mamdani was announced as the winner.“I feel wonderful. I think hope is still alive,” he said, as the words “Zohran Mamdani wins race for mayor” rolled across the TV screen.Informed by the Guardian that every major news organization had announced Mamdani as the winner, Jones snapped back to reality quickly, but remained defiant.“I’m not disappointed at all. No, because Cuomo ran a great campaign,” he said. Jones added of Cuomo, who is 67 years old: “He’s still a young man.”Jones and Diaz voiced their concerns about Mamdani with more grace than Cuomo did throughout an inflammatory campaign, but in some quarters the mood became unsavory.“I feel excited to be moving to Long Beach, because there’s no fucking way I’m staying in the city with that piece-of-shit jihadi communist as mayor,” a woman called Felice said, combining Islamophobia with inaccuracy.“I already have a real-estate broker. I already got approval for a loan. I already picked out four places I’m gonna go see on Monday.”Felice, who was drinking wine, added that New Yorkers had voted for Mamdani because “there’s a lot of transplants and young people and foreigners who voted, who bought his bullshit”.Unfortunately there wasn’t time to hear much more from Felice, who said she was a teacher, because a full-throated chant broke out.“Shame on Sliwa! Shame on Sliwa!” dozens of people at the front of the room jeered, apparently blaming Sliwa, a Republican, for Cuomo’s loss. At the bar, one man told his friend it was “embarrassing”.It certainly wasn’t good. By 10.30pm Should I Stay or Should I Go by the Clash was blasting over the speakers. Many people were choosing the latter. Waitstaff were packing down the free bar.With people clearly losing interest, campaign staff sprang into action. They hurried the remaining crowd to the front of the stage. It was time for Cuomo to appear, and give a gracious concession speech.Except it wasn’t.Cuomo immediately tried to cast his loss as a success, telling the crowd: “This campaign was to contest the philosophies that are shaping the Democratic party, the future of this city and the future of this country.” He said that 50% of New Yorkers had not voted for Mamdani’s agenda, and claimed his own campaign, which has seen him accused of racism and Islamophobia, was about “unity”.Cuomo then trotted out some misinterpretations of Mamdani’s political positions, concluding: “We are headed down a dangerous, dangerous road.“We will not make the NYPD the enemy,” Cuomo said. “We will not tolerate any behavior that fans the flames of antisemitism,” he added, returning to a familiar theme from his campaign.After 10 minutes of Cuomo claiming Mamdani was going to drive New York into a post-apocalyptic nightmare, it was hardly surprising that there was a round of lusty boos and loud jeers when the former governor finally mentioned his opponent by name.But Cuomo appeared shocked by the anger. He suddenly adopted an air of contrition that was very much absent from his campaign.“No, that is not right, and that is not us,” he told his supporters.And yet.Cuomo recently chuckled along after a radio host said Mamdani would “cheer” another 9/11-style terrorist attack. In October, Cuomo was widely condemned after posting an AI-generated anti-Mamdani ad that featured a slew of racist stereotypes. Cuomo has labelled Mamdani an “extremist”, and claimed New York “will not survive” him as mayor.Perhaps Cuomo meant it when he said “that is not us”. But as he exits New York politics, surely forever, the evidence is stacked against him. More

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      ‘A historic victory’: our panel reacts to Zohran Mamdani’s triumph | Panel

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      Osita Nwanevu: ‘a historic victory of the American left’Set aside for a moment the interminable back and forth over whether Zohran Mamdani represents the future of the Democratic party. This much is beyond dispute: Mamdani represents the immediate future of New York City, America’s largest town and the financial capital of the world.His win, just as indisputably, is a historic victory for the American left, which has been buoyed in spirit and resolve since Mamdani’s underdog victory in the mayoral primary. In New York, it will have a measure of the governing power its own pessimists and its dogged opponents within the Democratic party alike have doubted it was capable of winning.And the country at large will be watching the city closely ⁠– less out of a belief in the coming apocalypse only Republicans are convinced the city is in for than out of curiosity as to whether Mamdani can actually deliver on the promise of his campaign and manage the city at least as well as an ordinary Democrat could.But the challenges sure to face him as he works to prove himself shouldn’t overshadow the significance of what he’s already done. An organizing effort that will be studied for many years to come, highly disciplined messaging, a moral stand on the genocide in Gaza that has shaken up the Democratic party’s internal politics on confronting Israel, a level of charisma and creativity unseen on the American political scene since at least Barack Obama, a conceptual bridge between the material politics of affordability and a politics of values, speaking to what it means to be a New Yorker and an American ⁠– Mamdani’s run has offered us lessons that ought to be put to work well beyond New York City’s limits.

      Osita Nwanevu is a columnist at Guardian US and the author of The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding
      Judith Levine: why are Democrats running from Mamdani?The last door on my canvassing turf, a Brooklyn brownstone, looked like a gut renovation: minimalist plantings, spot lighting. The woman welcomed me. Her vote for Mamdani “felt historic”, she said. And her husband? “Are you voting for Zohran?” she shouted into the house. The reply: “Just don’t raise my taxes.”There it was. Israel and Islamophobia moved voters one way or another. But in the end, it was pure class warfare.The city’s richest man donated $8m to defeat Mamdani. The New York Post predicted that Wall Street would move to Dallas if the democratic socialist won. “This election is a choice between capitalism and socialism,” Cuomo declared.Mamdani’s platform, “affordability”, is hardly radical. Indeed, Americans support what he promises: free childcare and raising taxes on millionaires. Gallup recently found that Democrats view socialism more positively than capitalism – 66 to 42%.Still, if not quite socialist, the spirit of city hall will be different: pro-immigrant, pro-tenant, pro-government, anti-billionaire. Last week, three Democratic leaders told the press they wouldn’t let the Republicans use 42 million hungry food stamp beneficiaries to force an end to the shutdown, letting healthcare subsidies lapse to bankroll tax giveaways to the rich. Then Chuck Schumer hurried out, ducking a question about whether he supported Mamdani.“A city where everyone can live with security and dignity.” Mamdani’s message, applied nationally, was the same as the message Democrats were trying to push at their press conference. In New York, it prevailed. Why are Democrats running from this gifted messenger, who embodies the only vital future for a moribund party?

      Judith Levine is Brooklyn-based journalist, essayist and author of five books. Her Substack is Today in Fascism
      Malaika Jabali: ‘flicker of hope amid the gloom’If conservatives wanted to fearmonger about the specter of socialism to keep Mamdani from winning New York City’s mayoral race, it couldn’t have come at a worse time.Donald Trump, billionaire president and self-appointed foil to the new mayor-elect of New York City, has been playing games with the country’s food stamp program as families show up in droves to food bank lines. Authoritarianism, expensive healthcare and unaffordable housing have threatened the average American household, and the country’s elites have cruelly mocked them.New York City residents have felt this acutely. The city’s voters cited cost of living, and housing in particular, as the top concern as they exited the voting booths Tuesday.Mamdani’s popularity will be attributed to his social media savvy and connection with young voters. But the bigger factor is that Mamdani tapped into their economic anxieties in ways the Democratic establishment has failed to while it stubbornly commits to a neoliberal agenda.In the years ahead, Mamdani will not only face antagonism from Trump but the antipathy of his own party, home to Democratic leaders such as Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, none of whom endorsed him in the race. But for one night at least, New Yorkers can celebrate this flicker of hope amid the gloom.

      Malaika Jabali is a columnist at Guardian US
      Bhaskar Sunkara: don’t chalk this up to ‘viral moments’I spent most of tonight thinking about how improbable this once seemed. Mamdani – a democratic socialist – is the next mayor of New York City.Zohran is an incredibly gifted communicator and he built a campaign team that matched that talent. But it would be a mistake to chalk up his victory to charisma or viral moments. It was built on knocking on doors, talking about rent, wages and the everyday costs that define people’s lives. It was a reminder that the left wins when it shows that democratic socialists are laser-focused on meeting human needs, not fighting culture wars.They tried to make the race about Israel. They tried to paint Mamdani as an extremist or a threat. But he refused the bait, staying disciplined and universal in his appeal – talking about housing, transit and affordability with the same clarity to every audience. It was politics rooted in working-class issues, not posture.Does this victory matter beyond New York? Absolutely. The style will differ in deep red districts, but the lesson is the same: build politics around the pocketbook issues workers care about most.

      Bhaskar Sunkara is the president of the Nation, the founding editor of Jacobin, and the author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in An Era of Extreme Inequalities More

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      A cultural revolution? Trump’s America feels oddly familiar to those watching from China

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      When Vickie Wang, a budding standup comedian, gets on stage in New York, she’s not just thinking about what jokes to crack. She’s also thinking about which ones to avoid. “I don’t criticise the administration directly,” she said. Or if she does, she makes sure it’s not recorded for social media. “I would never publicly publish something where I directly criticise the government … I think it’s a learned behaviour from China”.Wang, 39, lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, leaving in 2022. In 2025 she relocated to the US. When she arrived, she went on a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on democracy”, going to talks, protests and diving into New York’s public library.But in the year since Donald Trump was elected as US president for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “In China, I knew where the line was, whereas in the US I’m standing on shifting sands.”Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in the US which many Chinese people, or people who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Enemies are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Journalists are targeted. Institutions are attacked.Trump has not been shy about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. And after decades of hope in the US that closer ties with China may help the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is being pulled in the Chinese direction, rather than the other way around.“The United States is undergoing a period of cultural revolution,” said Zhang Qianfan, a professor of constitutional law at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to sideline or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago”.View image in fullscreenEver since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed US politics through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or purging institutions of perceived enemies, Trump as viewed from China has delivered Mao-style chaos to the US, albeit without the same levels of violence.But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, a new, different kind of political atmosphere has settled in the US, which in different ways also feels familiar to many Chinese people.‘The lighthouse has become dimmer’The most profound similarity between Trump’s America and China is the crackdown on free speech.Deng Haiyan, a police officer turned Chinese Communist party (CCP) critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US since 2019, having fled China because of harassment from the authorities.In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people across the US – many of whom lost their jobs as a result of making negative comments about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.“This incident was a real shock to me. I never imagined that something like this could happen in the United States – something that should only happen in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.Deng’s pile on came from fellow social media users, rather than the state, but that kind of social surveillance also has similarities with China.“In terms of going after those who disagree with you and starting to surveil public speech about issues that are sensitive … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as well,” she said, adding that there were now fears in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has declined across the board”.“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, critical of China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than America’s, Zhang said. “It’s sort of painful to accept this … but after the pandemic the government seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be declining”.The Trump administration’s acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn comparisons with China, where the line between government and private industry is often blurred.On Monday the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies it considers vital to national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that the US is entering a new era of government meddling in private industry.There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it will still be freer, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”Zhang notes that while many intellectuals in China were shocked to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on campus, in China, the top universities are all state-owned by default. University leaders, which are appointed by the government, “have no liberty of saying no. They can’t afford to be disobedient”.Still, people in the US are starting to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues declined to be interviewed for this article. He said: “The truth is that I am scared of the censorship here: I actually feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad about Trump.”Additional research by Lillian Yang More

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      Trump administration says it will partially fund Snap food aid benefits– live

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      The Trump administration has said in a court filing that it plans to partially fund food aid for millions of Americans after two judges ruled last week that it must use contingency funds to pay for the benefits in November during the government shutdown.This is per a snap updated from the Reuters news agency and I’ll bring you more on this as we get it.Nearly two dozen states have sued the Trump administration over its new rule that limits student loan forgiveness for people who work for non-profits or the government. The lawsuit is being led by New York Attorney General Letitia James and has been joined by 20 attorneys general in states including Arizona, Illinois and Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia’s attorney general.The US Department of Education issued the final rule last week, which changes the definition of “qualifying employer” and excludes organizations “that engage in unlawful activities” such as “supporting terrorism and aiding and abetting illegal immigration”. The Public Service Loan Forgiveness law was signed into force by George W Bush in 2007.“Public Service Loan Forgiveness was created as a promise to teachers, nurses, firefighters, and social workers that their service to our communities would be honored,” James said in a statement. “Instead, this administration has created a political loyalty test disguised as a regulation.”Donald Trump has long criticized student loan forgiveness programs and has aimed to roll back debt relief bolstered during the Biden administration, which included making it easier for people to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

      The Trump administration has said in a court filing that it plans to partially fund food aid for millions of Americans after two judges ruled last week that it must use contingency funds to pay for the benefits in November during the government shutdown. The administration laid out the US Department of Agriculture’s plan in a filing in federal court in Rhode Island at the direction of a judge who had last week ordered it to use emergency funds to at least partially cover November’s Snap benefits. While the administration said it would fully deplete the $5.25bn in contingency funds, it would not use other funding that would allow it to fully fund Snap benefits for 42 million Americans, which cost $8bn to $9bn per month.

      As the ongoing government shutdown enters its 34th day, Republican leaders maintain they have no plans to abolish the filibuster. Speaking to reporters today, House speaker Mike Johnson said his colleagues in the Senate saw the 60-vote threshold needed in the Senate to end debate on a bill, as an “important safeguard” from the “Democrats’ worst impulses”. This, despite Donald Trump decrying the measure on social media, and in a recent interview with 60 Minutes. Johnson said today that the president is simply very “passionate” about this issue. “I think what you see in this debate – we’re having on our own side is a reflection of the anger that we feel, the real desperation that we feel, because we want the government to be reopened,” he added.

      As election day inches closer, candidates to be New York City’s next mayor spent the day traversing the city with eleventh-hour pitches to voters. Early voting in the closely watched mayoral race ended on Sunday. More than 735,000 New Yorkers cast their ballots ahead of Tuesday’s election. The Democratic nominee, Zohran Mamdani, is still the frontrunner in the race, much to the ire of the president. In his 60 Minutes interview, Trump said that he’s “not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other”, but he would rather see the former governor – who is running as an Independent – win against the progressive assemblyman leading the polls. “If it’s gonna be between a bad Democrat and a communist, I’m gonna pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you,” Trump said.
      The inspector general for the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is being removed from his role, according to Reuters. Citing three unnamed people familiar with the matter, the outlet reports that Joe Allen is being removed from his role overseeing the office responsible for rooting out waste, fraud and abuse at the FHFA.Reuters also noted that the website for the FHFA’s Office of Inspector General listed the position as “currently vacant”. It was unclear when the website was updated.In recent weeks, the agency’s leader, Bill Pulte, has made himself known as a loyal supporter of Donald Trump’s efforts to target those he sees as political adversaries. He’s accused Federal Reserve governor, Lisa Cook, of mortgage fraud, and pushed the justice department to investigate New York attorney general Letitia James – who recently plead not guilty after being indicted on two charges of bank fraud, and making false statements to a financial institution.In response, Elizabeth Warren – the top Democratic senator on the banking committee – issued a statement today.“What happened to the watchdog overseeing his agency? What does Pulte have to hide as he continues to use his role to investigate President Trump’s perceived political enemies while failing to lower housing costs for the American people?,” the lawmaker representing Massachusetts said.As election day inches closer, candidates to be New York City’s next mayor spent the day traversing the city with eleventh-hour pitches to voters.Democratic nominee, and frontrunner, Zohran Mamdani, former governor Andrew Cuomo who is running as an Independent, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, all spent a jam-packed weekend attending campaign events and getting as much face time with New Yorkers as possible. A reminder that early voting, which ended on Sunday, saw a record high turn out throughout the city.My colleague, Anna Betts, has been covering the latest on the ground. You can read more of her reporting below.The city of Miami’s mayor Francis Suarez is weighing in on Tuesday’s mayoral race in New York, with none-too-complimentary comments about Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate and frontrunner.Suarez, a Republican, was speaking to reporters this lunchtime ahead of the two-day America Business Forum in Miami on Wednesday and Thursday, which Donald Trump will attend.“New York seems to be on the precipice of electing a Democratic socialist, a young charismatic leader. But we’ve been to that movie before, here in Miami,” said Suarez, the termed-out, eight-year mayor whose successor will also be elected on Tuesday.“In this city we’ve had young charismatic leaders that promised us, you know, ‘Give us all your businesses, give us all your property, we’ll make everybody equal’. And they did. They made everybody equally poor, equally miserable and equally repressed,” he said.Suarez says the impact on Miami if Mamdani is elected will be significant, and he predicts an exodus from New York. “There’s going to be a 20, 30, maybe even 40% spike in demand and in real estate prices here in Miami, it’s an inevitable consequence,” he added. “I don’t have a border, you know, I can’t prevent people from coming.”Trump is the headline speaker at the conference, which features luminaries from the worlds of politics, business and sport. They include sports stars Lionel Messi, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams; Javier Milei, the far-right president of Argentina; Steve Witkoff, Trump adviser and Middle East envoy; and María Corina Machado, winner of the 2025 Nobel peace prize that Trump was angling for.As is customary during these dueling press conferences throughout the shutdown, each party continues to blame the other for failing to reopen the government.Jeffries just called Donald Trump the “puppet master” of the Republican party, and said that GOP lawmakers refuse to negotiate due to their ongoing deference to the president.Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, is now speaking to reporters at the US Capitol. A reminder that the lower chamber is still out of session as the government shutdown enters its 34th day.Further to that, the Trump administration said $600m would be used to fund states’ administrative costs in administering Snap benefits, leaving $4.65bn that will be obligated to cover 50% of eligible households’ current allotments.The partial payments are unprecedented in the program’s history. A USDA official warned in a court filing that at least some states, which administer Snap benefits on a day-to-day basis, would need weeks to months to make system changes that would allow them to provide the reduced benefits.US district judge in Rhode Island John McConnell and another judge in Boston, US district judge Indira Talwani, said on Friday the administration had the discretion to also tap a separate fund holding about $23bn.Patrick Penn, deputy under secretary for food, nutrition, and consumer services at the USDA, said in a court filing the agency was carefully considering using those funds but determined they must remain available for child nutrition programs instead of Snap.Per my last post, the administration laid out the US Department of Agriculture’s plan in a filing in federal court in Rhode Island at the direction of a judge who had last week ordered it to use emergency funds to at least partially cover November’s Snap benefits.The justice department said the USDA is complying with US district judge John McConnell’s order and “will fulfill its obligation to expend the full amount of Snap contingency funds today”.But while the administration said it would fully deplete the $5.25bn in contingency funds, it would not use other funding that would allow it to fully fund Snap benefits for 42 million Americans, which cost $8bn to $9bn per month.The Trump administration has said in a court filing that it plans to partially fund food aid for millions of Americans after two judges ruled last week that it must use contingency funds to pay for the benefits in November during the government shutdown.This is per a snap updated from the Reuters news agency and I’ll bring you more on this as we get it.Per that last post, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer quipped on social media today.“Maybe I should file a complaint with the FCC against the Trump White House for editing his unhinged 60 Minutes interview,” the top Democrat wrote on X. “It will use the exact same language Trump lodged against Vice President Harris.”The CBS News program 60 Minutes heavily edited down an interview with Donald Trump that aired on Sunday night, his first sit-down with the show in five years.Trump sat down with correspondent Norah O’Donnell for 90 minutes, but only about 28 minutes were broadcast. A full transcript of the interview was later published, along with a 73-minute-long extended version online.The edits are notable because, exactly one year before Trump was interviewed by O’Donnell at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday he had sued CBS over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, which he alleged had been deceptively edited to help her chances in the presidential election.While many legal experts widely dismissed the lawsuit as “meritless” and unlikely to hold up under the first amendment, CBS settled with Trump for $16m in July. As part of the settlement, the network had agreed that it would release transcripts of future interviews of presidential candidates.At the beginning of Sunday’s show, O’Donnell reminded viewers that Paramount settled Trump’s lawsuit, but noted that “the settlement did not include an apology or admission of wrongdoing”.Ahead of election day across the country, my colleague Carter Sherman, has been covering how reproductive rights will be back on the ballot in this off-cycle year. Carter notes the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia could have sweeping consequences for abortion access in two states that have become havens for women fleeing abortion bans. In Pennsylvania, what should have been a relatively sleepy judicial-retention election has evolved into the most expensive race of its kind in nearly 50 years, largely due to heated fighting over abortion. With voters weighing whether to keep three Democratic justices on the state supreme court, advocates fear that liberals may lose control of the bench and, ultimately, lose abortion access in the purple state.Read more of her reporting here. When asked by reporters about the president’s insistence for lawmakers to abolish the filibuster, Mike Johnson said that he had spoken to Donald Trump over the weekend and shared his thoughts with him.“I hear my Senate Republican colleagues, some of the most conservative people in Congress, who say it’s an important safeguard. It prevents us, it holds us back from the Democrats’ worst impulses,” Johnson said. “What would the Democrats do if they had no filibuster impediment, no speed bump at all?”The House speaker added that he speaks “frankly and honestly” with the president and noted that he was very “passionate” about this issue. “I think what you see in this, this, this debate we’re having on our own side is a reflection of the anger that we feel, the real desperation that we feel, because we want the government to be reopened,” Johnson said.Mike Johnson has said that issuing payments to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) beneficiaries in the midst of the shutdown is “not as easy as hitting go send on a computer”.In recent days, two federal judges ordered the administration to use the program’s contingency funds to pay to Snap recipients. Today, Johnson said this was more complicated than it looked.“It costs over $9bn to fund Snap for a month, and we only have, I think it’s $5.2bn in the contingency fund. So you have a big shortfall,” he said. “You got to go through and recalculate partial payments to the 42 million recipients of the program.”Johnson noted that the president was not appealing against the rulings from the respective judges. “He wants that to be done,” Johnson said. “But he doesn’t see the mechanism to do it. So you have treasury, you have USDA, you have the other agencies involved that are working overtime, literally around the clock over the weekend, trying to figure out how to do this. But everybody needs to know, it’s not the full amount, assuming they could get this done and processed.”Throughout today’s press conference, Mike Johnson has continued to blame Senate Democrats for shuttering the government for 34 days. He, and many congressional Republicans, have claimed that the reason that lawmakers on the left have consistently rejected the House-passed funding bill is due to pressure from the progressive wing of the Democratic party.“They fear that personally for their own political future,” Johnson said today. “And they care more about that than they care about Snap benefits flow into hungry families, about air traffic controllers being paid so they can keep the skies safe, border patrol, troops and all the rest … It is extremism on the left that is the direct cause of American suffering right now.”In a short while, Republican House speaker Mike Johnson will hold a press conference, on the 34th day of the government shutdown.We’ll bring you the latest lines, particularly when it comes to reopening the lower chamber, as the shutdown is poised to be the longest on record (likely to beat the 35 days during Donald Trump’s first administration).In an interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes, Trump said that he’s “not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other”, but he would rather see the former governor win against the progressive frontrunner and state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani to be the next mayor of New York City.“If it’s gonna be between a bad Democrat and a communist, I’m gonna pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you,” Trump said.Early voting in the closely watched mayoral race ended on Sunday. More than 735,000 New Yorkers cast their ballots ahead of Tuesday’s election. More

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      Why is Donald Trump threatening military intervention in Nigeria?

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      Donald Trump has threatened to launch a “guns-a-blazing” US military intervention in Nigeria, claiming that the west African country’s government has failed to prevent attacks on Christians.Here’s what we know so far about the unfolding situation.What did Trump claim and what was the US political context?In a post on his Truth Social account at the weekend, Trump said: “Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter” and warned that if the Nigerian government failed to stop the killings, Washington would “immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria” and could “go into that now disgraced country, guns-a-blazing”.Trump’s remarks came after weeks of lobbying by US lawmakers and conservative Christian groups urging him to designate Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” (CPC) for alleged religious persecution – a list that also includes Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and China.His statement reflected renewed domestic political pressure to appear tough on the marginalisation or persecution of Christians abroad, a theme that resonates strongly with parts of his rightwing, evangelical base.Do Christians face a particular security threat in Nigeria?Nigeria is officially secular but almost evenly divided between Muslims (53%) and Christians (45%), with the remaining population practising African traditional religions. Violence against Christians has drawn significant international attention, and is often framed as religious persecution. However, most analysts argue the situation is more complex.In parts of central Nigeria, deadly clashes between itinerant Muslim herders and predominantly Christian farming communities are rooted in competition over land and water but exacerbated by religious and ethnic differences. The herders often claim reprisals for the killing of their people and cattle, while local communities see the attacks as ethnic cleansing targeting their settlements.Priests and pastors have increasingly been kidnapped for ransom, as they are viewed as influential figures whose worshippers or organisations can mobilise funds quickly. Some analysts say this may be a trend driven more by criminal economics than religious discrimination.What is the wider security situation in Nigeria?In the north-east, Boko Haram and its splinter groups such as Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have waged an insurgency since 2009, killing tens of thousands and displacing millions.In the north-west, heavily armed criminal gangs – often labelled “bandits” – carry out mass kidnappings and raids that affect both Muslim and Christian communities. These groups have expanded operations into north-central Nigeria, exploiting weak state presence and local grievances.“Christians are being killed, we can’t deny the fact that Muslims are [also] being killed,” Danjuma Dickson Auta, a Christian and community leader from Plateau state in the Middle Belt, told Agence France-Presse.Meanwhile, in the south-east, separatists seeking to revive the defunct state of Biafra have been linked to violence against government institutions and civilians, with most victims being Christians. In all, thousands have been killed across multiple fronts, creating overlapping humanitarian and governance crises.How has Nigeria responded to its security crises?Successive Nigerian governments have struggled to contain these threats and security forces are stretched thin across multiple fronts. They are also often accused of human rights abuses that previously halted US support – most notably under the Leahy Law, which restricts arms sales to forces accused of violations.In the absence of state police and proper intelligence collaborations at all levels of the security hierarchy, many communities remain unprotected, and vigilante groups have filled the vacuum in some states.How has Nigeria responded to Trump?In a statement on Sunday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu did not name Trump directly but emphasised that Nigeria “is a democracy with constitutional guarantees of religious liberty”. He said characterising the country as religiously intolerant “does not reflect our national reality”.Meanwhile, his presidential spokesperson, Daniel Bwala, described Trump’s post as “a miscommunication” and expressed hope that both leaders would “iron out” their differences if they meet. He insisted that “a data-driven assessment” rather than “isolated reports and social media videos” should guide international conclusions.Bwala added that any military action “would only happen if it is a joint action with the Nigerian government”, reaffirming Nigeria’s sovereignty.Still, concerns are mounting that Trump’s remarks could affect bilateral relations, particularly aid and sales of arms, or be exploited by secessionist groups such as the Biafra Republic Government in Exile, which is already lobbying in Washington. More

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      Trump says Maduro’s days are numbered but ‘doubts’ US will go to war with Venezuela

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      Donald Trump has sent mixed signals about potential US intervention in Venezuela, playing down concerns of imminent war against the South American nation but saying its leader Nicolás Maduro’s days were numbered.The president’s remarks, made during a CBS interview released on Sunday, come as the US amasses military units in the Caribbean and has conducted multiple strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels, killing dozens.Asked during the 60 Minutes program if the US was going to war against Venezuela, Trump said: “I doubt it. I don’t think so.” However, when asked if Maduro’s days as president were numbered, he replied: “I would say yeah. I think so, yeah.”Maduro, who faces indictment on drug charges in the US, has accused Washington of using drug trafficking as a pretext for “imposing regime change” in Caracas to seize Venezuelan oil.More than 15 US strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific have killed at least 65 people in recent weeks, with the latest taking place on Saturday, prompting criticism from governments in the region.Washington has yet to make public any evidence that its targets were smuggling narcotics or posed a threat to the US.In the same interview, Trump alleged countries including Russia and China had conducted underground nuclear tests unknown to the public, and that the US would test “like other countries do”.“Russia’s testing, and China’s testing, but they don’t talk about it,” he told 60 Minutes.“I don’t want to be the only country that doesn’t test,” he said, adding North Korea and Pakistan to the list of nations allegedly testing their arsenals.Confusion has surrounded Trump’s order that the US begin testing, particularly if he meant conducting the country’s first nuclear explosion since 1992.Trump first made his surprise announcement in a social media post on Thursday, minutes before entering a summit with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, in South Korea, saying he had “instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis”.The announcement came after Russia said it had tested a new nuclear-powered cruise missile, the Burevestnik, and a nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable underwater drone.Asked directly if he planned for the US to detonate a nuclear weapon for the first time in more than three decades, Trump told CBS: “I’m saying that we’re going to test nuclear weapons like other countries do, yes.”No country other than North Korea is known to have conducted a nuclear detonation for decades. Russia and China have not carried out such tests since 1990 and 1996, respectively.Pressed on the topic, Trump said: “They test way underground where people don’t know exactly what’s happening with the test. You feel a little bit of a vibration.”However, Trump’s energy secretary, Chris Wright, on Sunday downplayed any possible tests by the US, telling Fox News on Sunday: “I think the tests we’re talking about right now are system tests. These are not nuclear explosions.”The US has been a signatory since 1996 to the comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty, which bans all atomic test explosions, whether for military or civilian purposes.Other topics addressed in the interview included:

      Trump said he “won’t be extorted” by Democrats to reopen the government, making clear that he has no plans to negotiate as the government shutdown will soon enter its sixth week.

      Asked to clarify whether he would try to run for a third term, which is barred by the constitution, Trump said: “I don’t even think about it,”

      Trump said immigration enforcement officials hadn’t gone far enough in deporting people who were in the country without legal authorisation.
      With Agence France-Presse More

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      The luxury gap: Trump builds his palace as Americans face going hungry

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      It was a feast fit for a king – and any billionaire willing to be his subject. From gold-rimmed plates on gold-patterned tablecloths decorated with gold candlestick holders, they gorged on heirloom tomato panzanella salad, beef wellington and a dessert of roasted Anjou pears, cinnamon crumble and butterscotch ice-cream.On 15 October, Donald Trump welcomed nearly 130 deep-pocketed donors, allies and representatives of major companies for a dinner at the White House to reward them for their pledged contributions to a vast new ballroom now expected to cost $300m. That the federal government had shut down two weeks earlier scarcely seemed to matter.But two weeks later, the shutdown is starting to bite – and throw Trump’s architectural folly into sharp relief. On Saturday, with Congress still locked in a legislative stalemate, a potential benefit freeze could leave tens of millions of low-income Americans without food aid. Democrats accuse Trump’s Republican party of “weaponising hunger” to pursue an extreme rightwing agenda.Images of wealthy monarchs or autocrats revelling in excess even as the masses struggle for bread are more commonly associated with the likes of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette of France, who spent lavishly at the court of Versailles, or Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos of the Philippines, who siphoned off billions while citizens endured deepening poverty.But now America has a jarring split-screen of its own, between an oligarch president bringing a Midas touch to the White House and families going hungry, workers losing pay and government services on the brink of collapse.View image in fullscreenView image in fullscreen“Are you fucking kidding me?” exclaimed Kamala Harris, the former vice-president, during an interview on Jon Stewart’s Comedy Central podcast The Weekly Show. “This guy wants to create a ballroom for his rich friends while completely turning a blind eye to the fact that babies are going to starve when the Snap benefits end in just hours from now.”For years Trump has cultivated the image of a “blue-collar billionaire” and, in last year’s presidential election, he beat Harris by 14 percentage points among non-college-educated voters – double his margin in 2016.Yet he grew up in an affluent neighbourhood of Queens, New York, and joined the family business as a property developer, receiving a $1m loan from his father for projects in Manhattan. He attached his name to luxury hotels and golf clubs and achieved celebrity through the New York tabloids and as host of the reality TV show The Apprentice.View image in fullscreenAs a politician, however, Trump has successfully branded himself as the voice of the left-behinds in towns hollowed out by industrialisation. His formula includes tapping into grievance, particularly white grievance, and into “Make America Great Again” nostalgia . His speeches are peppered with aspirational promises that his policies will guarantee his supporters a share of the nation’s wealth.This has apparently given him leeway with Trump voters who, despite their own struggles, turned a blind eye to the largesse of his first term and how it might benefit his family. But it was clear from his inauguration in January – when he was surrounded by the tech titans Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai and Mark Zuckerberg – that part two would be different.Trump has made a personal profit of more than $1.8bn over the past year, according to a new financial tracker run by the Center for American Progress thinktank, which says the lion’s share came from launching his own crypto ventures while aggressively deregulating the industry. Other sources of income include gifts, legal settlements and income from a $40m Amazon documentary about the first lady, Melania Trump.There have been brazen “let them eat cake” moments. In May, Trump said he would accept a $400m luxury plane from Qatar and use it as Air Force One despite concerns that it could violate the US constitution’s emoluments clause. In October, it was reported he was demanding the justice department pay him about $230m in compensation over federal investigations he faced that he claims were politically motivated.View image in fullscreenLarry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said: “There is a glaring gap between the life of Donald Trump, which is gold-plated and luxurious, and the life of so many Americans who are now being hit by the government shutdown.“You have to go back in history to examples in the 1920s or the Gilded Age in the late 19th century to find this kind of opulence that’s not just going on but being advertised. That goes along with all the other efforts to enrich Donald Trump and his family and his friends. It’s a shocking display of the use of public power for private gain.”It is hard to imagine a more resonant symbol than the ballroom. Last month, Trump left presidential historians and former White House staff aghast by demolishing the East Wing without seeking approval from the National Capital Planning Commission, which vets the construction of federal buildings. He also fired all six members of the Commission of Fine Arts, an independent agency that had expected to review the project.He claimed the destruction was a necessary step towards building a long-needed ballroom which, at 90,000 sq ft, would be big enough to hold an inauguration and dwarf the executive mansion itself. It will be funded not by the taxpayer but the new masters of the universe.Among the companies represented at the 15 October dinner were Amazon, Apple, Booz Allen Hamilton, Coinbase, Comcast, Google, Lockheed Martin, Meta Platforms and T-Mobile. The Adelson Family Foundation, founded by the Republican mega-donors Miriam Adelson and her late husband Sheldon, also had a presence.The oil billionaire Harold Hamm, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, Small Business Administration chief Kelly Loeffler and her husband, Jeff Sprecher, and crypto entrepreneur twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss – who were portrayed by the actor Armie Hammer in the film The Social Network – were all on the guest list.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionEthics watchdogs condemned the dinner as a blatant case of selling access to the president with the potential for influence peddling and other forms of corruption. Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist, said: “It’s par for the course for Donald Trump. Millionaires and billionaires wine with him and dine with him and everything is fine with him. There’s a cost and there’s consequences.“They’re not donating this money because it’s a nice thing to do. Certainly there’s some sort of benefit to them and it could be the largest wealth transfer in American history with the big ugly bill [the Working Families Tax Cut Act] just a few months ago.”View image in fullscreenThat legislation delivers tax cuts for the rich while reducing food assistance and making health insurance more expensive for working families. The mood is only likely to darken as the second-longest government shutdown in history threatens to rip the social safety net away from millions of people. John Thune, the Republican majority leader in the Senate, warned on Wednesday: “It’s going to get ugly fast.”A number of essential public services are approaching the end of their available funds, a situation likely to be felt directly in households, schools and airports from this weekend.The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), also known as food stamps, is set to lapse for 42 million people, raising the spectre of long queues at food banks. On Friday, two federal judges ruled that the Trump administration must continue to fund the programme with contingency funds. But the decisions are likely to face appeals. It was also unclear how soon the debit cards that beneficiaries use to buy groceries could be reloaded.Schemes that provide early years’ education for low-income families and subsidised air travel to remote communities are also set to run aground. At the same time, thousands of federal employees will soon miss their first full paychecks since the shutdown began, raising the prospect of staffing shortages in areas such as airport security and air traffic control.The timing is awkward because Saturday also marks the start of open enrolment for health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act. Premiums are expected to soar, reflecting insurers’ doubts that Congress will renew enhanced tax credits before they lapse at year’s end – one of the key points of contention in the current standoff.Trump can often appear immune to political crises. But in a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos opinion poll released on Thursday, only 28% of Americans say they support the ballroom project, compared with 56% who oppose it. The same survey found that 45% blame Trump and Republicans for the government shutdown while 33% hold Democrats responsible. Notably, independents blame Trump and Republicans by a 2-1 margin – handing Democrats an opportunity.View image in fullscreenJohn Zogby, an author and pollster, said: “For the first time in a while, they have an opening with rural voters. Medicaid and Snap are infrastructural necessities in the poorest counties. Without programmes like this being funded, you’re not just talking about hurting poor people or rural people who are invisible; you’re talking about shutting down hospitals and clinics, and that matters to people. Democrats should be fanning out in rural areas and people should be telling their stories.”It is safe to assume that, had Barack Obama or Joe Biden built a ballroom during the crippling austerity of a government shutdown, Republicans and rightwing media would have gone scorched-earth against them. Trump’s ostentatious display of wealth and cronyism comes against a backdrop of widening social and economic inequality. Democrats, however, are often accused of lacking a killer instinct.Joe Walsh, a former Republican representative aligned with the conservative Tea Party who four months ago became a Democrat, said: “Democrats don’t know how to fight and I can see they’re already squirming on this ballroom issue. We’ve got a guy in the White House who every day is taking a blowtorch to this country and most Democrats don’t understand the moment. He ploughs ahead and tears down the East Wing because he knows he can get away with it.”Walsh believes that the next Democratic president should commit to demolishing Trump’s ballroom. “This is somebody who’s a tyrant who believes he can ignore all laws, rules, norms and processes,” he added. “You have to draw the line on that. No, he cannot unilaterally demolish the East Wing and build a big old ballroom. This guy has no clue what America is. We don’t have palaces in America.” More