Zohran Mamdani is not merely the mayor-elect of New York City. He is the embodiment of a dangerous ideological movement sweeping through a generation that does not know history. His victory is not a municipal affair; it is a symbolic test of whether extreme socialism and anti-capitalist revolution can gain a foothold in America by appealing to the politically inexperienced and economically naive. To understand the importance of this moment, one must understand why Donald Trump handled his meeting with Mamdani with extraordinary restraint.
For Trump, this was not a routine conversation. This was a strategic moment, a political pivot point, and he understood exactly what was at stake. Mamdani came to the meeting with a purpose. He wanted a confrontation. He wanted Trump to challenge his anti-Israel rhetoric, argue about “genocide,” or ridicule his far-left policies. He wanted Trump to become the villain in his script, the external enemy he could blame when reality crushed his ideology.
Every socialist leader in history has needed such a villain. From Lenin to Castro, from Chávez to Maduro, the narrative is always the same, “Our system works, but we were sabotaged by the rich, the capitalists, the outsiders.”
Trump refused to play that role. He was calm, polite, even friendly. He listened without interruption. He avoided confrontation when Mamdani blamed Israel for "genocide". He made no attempt to dismantle Mamdani’s economic fantasies. He offered no criticisms for Mamdani to weaponize. Trump recognized the trap instantly. If Mamdani is going to lead New York into catastrophe, he must do it alone. Trump would not give him a scapegoat. He would not allow his name to become the excuse for Mamdani’s inevitable failure.
This was political jiujitsu, a strategic withholding of energy that denied Mamdani what his ideology needs most, an enemy.
This restraint was not a sign of weakness. It was a sign of clarity. Trump understood that Mamdani’s success, even temporary, would be a national disaster. Mamdani’s supporters are convinced they are building a new kind of society, yet they do not grasp why socialism has failed everywhere it has been tried. They do not understand the lessons of the Soviet Union, Cuba, or Venezuela.
They do not recognize that governments collapse when they run out of other people’s money. They do not realize that businesses do not stay and pay - when demonized, they leave. They do not see that antisemitism dressed as “anti-colonialism” creates social instability, not justice.
If Mamdani’s policies appear successful, even briefly, the far-left movement will spread across the United States. It will be presented as proof that America should follow the Venezuelan model, as if Venezuela was not a wealthy nation destroyed by the very ideology Mamdani celebrates. A short-term illusion of success is the greatest threat of all, because it will be used as a weapon of persuasion by radicals nationwide. It would accelerate the ideological revolution that is already attempting to infiltrate universities, media, and political institutions.
But if Mamdani fails, truly fails, publicly and undeniably, then the movement will collapse with him. His supporters will be forced to confront the reality that theories do not run cities and slogans do not balance budgets. They will discover that wealth does not respond to ideology, it responds to incentives. When New York faces capital flight, declining tax revenues, rising crime, budgetary collapse, and service deterioration, it will be impossible to blame Trump or Israel or “the rich.” Without an external enemy, the ideology must face its own consequences. And Trump ensured exactly that by denying Mamdani any confrontation or controversy that could later be weaponized.
This is why Mamdani’s failure is a national necessity. New York will suffer, yes. There will be pain, financial instability, and social tension. But this pain will serve a larger purpose, protecting the entire country from the spread of an ideology that promises everything and destroys everything it touches. America can survive New York’s misadventure. It cannot survive the Venezuelan path on a national scale.
Mamdani is not dangerous because his ideas will succeed. They will not. They cannot. They are mathematically doomed. He is dangerous because if he appears to succeed, even for a short time, he will give the far left the credibility it needs to transform the United States into a place that abandons capitalism, crushes innovation, encourages antisemitism, and drives out those who create wealth. The future of the country depends on exposing that illusion before it spreads.
Trump’s silence was strategic. His restraint was purposeful. He did not challenge Mamdani because he understands something vital. If Mamdani is going to collapse under the weight of his own ideology, he must have no one else to blame.
His downfall must be clean, unambiguous, and publicly undeniable. When the budgets fail, when businesses flee, when crime rises, when the narrative collapses, the lesson will be visible to all. And that lesson will protect America far more effectively than any argument or speech ever could.
Mamdani is not just a mayor. He is the test case for whether America still remembers the lessons of history. If he fails, New York suffers. If he succeeds, America becomes Venezuela. Trump understood that the most important contribution he could make in that meeting was to ensure that Mamdani’s failure will belong entirely to Mamdani, and that the country will see, without distortion or excuse, exactly where this ideology leads.
Dr. Avi Perry is a former professor at Northwestern University, a former Bell Labs researcher and manager, and later served as Vice President at NMS Communications. He represented the United States on the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Standards Committee, where he authored significant portions of the G.168 standard. He is the author of the thriller novel 72 Virgins and a Cambridge University Press book on voice quality in wireless networks, and is a regular op-ed contributor to The Jerusalem Post and Israel National News.