Zohran Mamdani clearly finds one popular argument against him — which involves millionaires and billionaires — a bit rich.
Business leaders and New York City’s wealthiest residents are threatening to leave the Big Apple if Mamdani, the Democratic mayoral nominee, wins next month.
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One of the self-identified democratic socialist’s campaign promises is that he will lower the cost-of-living in the city by raising taxes ― slightly ― on the wealthiest 1% of New Yorkers. Mamdani also plans to raise the corporate tax rate.
This has miffed some business leaders as well as millionaire and billionaire residents, like President Donald Trump-backer Bill Ackman, who has decided to throw oodles of financial support into the campaign of Mamdani’s opponent, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
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Yet, Andrew Schulz told Mamdani on Wednesday’s episode of his bro-centric podcast “Flagrant” that he didn’t quite buy what Ackman is selling.
“I also think this idea that New Yorkers are going to flee because of a 2% increase. It’s like, I’ve been everywhere else — you’re not going anywhere,” Andrew Schulz said 10 minutes into the episode. “Bill Ackman’s not going nowhere!”
After some back-and-forth with Mamdani in which they joked about billionaire hedge fund manager’s opulent lifestyle and novel-length tweets, Mamdani busted out a truly hilarious one-liner defending his tax hike.
“He’s spending more money against me than I would even tax him,” Mamdani said, causing most of the podcast hosts to burst out laughing.
After uttering that gem, Mamdani continued.
“Every day it’s like, a million dollars! Like a million dollars! Habibi, I don’t even want that money,” Mamdani said, using the Arabic word for “my love.”
“You’re going above and beyond!” Mamdani added.
Some X users found Mamdani’s remarks pretty funny.
Another reason why Scrooge McDuck-like New Yorkers are terrified by the looming threat of Mamdani could be that he’s also publicly expressed the opinion that he doesn’t think that billionaires should even exist.
“I don’t think that we should have billionaires,” he told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in June. “Because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality, and ultimately, what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country.”
“And I look forward to working with everyone, including billionaires, to make a city that is fair for all of them,” he added.