This week, we have the inside story of the preparations New York City officials and advocates are making for a federal national guard invasion by Trump following Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the city’s mayoral election; we’ll even see what those preparations look like in the Trumpiest borough in the city. For full access to the latest edition of Huddled Masses, upgrade your subscription to Bulwark+ today—we’d love for you to join our community.
JUST HOURS AFTER HE SEALED an improbable victory in New York City’s mayoral race, Zohran Mamdani was at the Caribe Hilton in Puerto Rico speaking to a crowd of New York’s political class at the annual Somos conference.
“Here we say Puerto rico no se vende, in New York City we say Nueva York no se vende,” Mamdani said, invoking a popular saying on the island that translates to “Puerto Rico is not for sale.” It is the slogan of a working-class struggle, he said—one that unites the island with the city he’d just come from, where so many Puerto Ricans live.
Given his electoral triumph two days prior, Mamdani’s unifying message had a special, hopeful resonance. But back in the city he will soon lead, this feeling of solidarity is about to be tested by the Trump administration’s belligerent immigration enforcement actions. I’m told that Mamdani’s team and other New York officials have already begun quiet but urgent preparations for hostile deployments from ICE, the National Guard, or both. It’s a concern that was front of mind even before this month’s election results. But now leaders—ranging from state and local elected officials to the heads of immigration groups, cultural institutions, and city businesses—are bracing for Trump to adopt an even more aggressive posture in response to Mamdani’s win.
City officials anticipate that Trump will flip to a well-thumbed page in his playbook and follow up his federal National Guard incursions into Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Chicago by giving New York City the same treatment in the new year. They believe he will frame the city as engulfed by violent crime, an Escape from New York hellscape that he alone can tame through brute force.
And in the dozen conversations I’ve had with city officials and local leaders, it’s become clear that...
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