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Tens of thousands of New Yorkers braved freezing temperatures and police barricades to be part of Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration as mayor on New Year’s Day. Democracy Now! spoke with many Mamdani supporters, including a high school student and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, about what the day represented to them, their hopes for the new administration and how it could set a model for progressives across the country. “Organized people will always be more powerful than organized money,” said Diana Moreno, a fellow democratic socialist who is running for Mamdani’s vacant seat in the New York State Assembly.

“For too long in our city, freedom has belonged only to those who can afford to buy it,” said the new mayor. “Our City Hall will change that."

New York City started 2026 with a new mayor, as democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani made history when he was sworn in as the city’s first Muslim, first South Asian and first African-born leader, as well as the youngest in over a century. Ahead of a public ceremony on New Year’s Day that drew tens of thousands of people in the freezing cold, Mamdani was privately sworn in at midnight by New York Attorney General Tish James in a small ceremony held at a decommissioned subway station below City Hall. He took his oath using two Qur’ans, including one that belonged to his grandfather. Andrew Epstein, one of Mamdani’s closest advisers, spoke with Democracy Now! about the significance of the private ceremony and how it connected the new mayor to the history of the city he now leads.

It is no use hoping for any alteration in the collective West’s course so long as today’s “purported leaders” remain in office.

Zohran Mamdani Sworn In as New York’s First Muslim and First Democratic Socialist Mayor, U.S. Federal Minimum Wage Remains Flat for 16th Straight Year as Billionaires’ Wealth Skyrockets, Trump Hosts Netanyahu as Guest of Honor at Lavish Mar-a-Lago New Year’s Party, Winter Storms Batter Tents Housing Displaced Palestinians in Gaza, Killing Two More Children, Israel Demolishes Palestinian Homes in West Bank Refugee Camp, Approves Even More Settlements, Hundreds of Thousands March in Istanbul to Demand End to Israel’s Genocide in Palestine, Pentagon Says It Blew Up 5 More Boats in Caribbean and Pacific, Killing at Least 8, Governor of Russian-Occupied Kherson Says Ukrainian Attack Killed 24 and Wounded 50, Trump Says He’ll Withdraw National Guard Troops from Chicago, L.A. and Portland, ICE Plans $100 Million “Wartime Recruitment” Campaign Targeting Military and Firearms Enthusiasts, Trump Administration Freezes Federal Child Care Funds Nationwide, “We Are Locked and Loaded”: Trump Threatens to Attack Iran as Protesters Clash with Security Forces

Trumpism has been aided by divestment that hollowed higher ed out from the core, AAUP President Todd Wolfson says.

Mamdani surged from a relative unknown to become the face of progressive politics in the US.

Rights groups and domestic critics argue that Mamady Doumbouya has steadily stifled dissent in the African nation.