(A column of opinion by Gary Reid, Publisher Emeritus)

Watch out for the counterfeiter

Zohran Mamdani, the socialist-Democrat who is now mayor of New York City — the business center of the world – reportedly has a winning smile.

That means he can promote anti-American policies to people who might otherwise oppose them because he has a pleasant persona, should he want to use it.

Radical changes often begin in tiny steps. That’s how once-free nations become dictatorships.

Jarrett Stepman, columnist at the Daily Signal, the publication founded by The Heritage Foundation but which now operates independently, reports that one of Mamdani’s top advisers is getting flak for supporting communists and planning to deprive Americans of their God-given rights, and what’s her response?

“Crying.” Cea Weaver, Mamdani’s newly appointed tenant director, made news for her past comments that have now gone viral.

The new director also said it’s important for “white people to feel defeated.”

Stepman reported: “But Weaver, who seemed so giddy about ruining the lives of middle-class white people, crumbled as soon as she was asked basic questions about her agenda.

“She literally broke down crying when a journalist asked her about a reported $1.4 million home her mother owned and quickly skedaddled away from cameras as fast as she could.”

Stepman listed some of Weaver’s “highlights.” She’s called for the collectivization of property (which she said will particularly affect white families); she’s called property ownership a tool of “white supremacy”; she supports the impoverishment of the white middle class; and has called for the election of communists.

Another comment she made in 2018 reads: “impoverish the ‘white’ middle class.”

Stepman relates that Weaver is white but has adopted Marxist ideology.

Mamdani apparently agrees with her policies. Stepman writes: On a podcast in 2021, unearthed by The Washington Free Beacon’s Jon Levine, Mamdani says, “I get most of my knowledge on housing from Cea, so if you get it from me, it’s just not coming from the source.”

Weaver isn’t unused to the finer things in life. She is reported a graduate of the exclusive women’s college, Bryn Mawr, in Pennsylvania and her mother lives in a $1.4 million home.

She may be of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s persuasion, “Socialism for thee but not for me.”

New York’s election of a socialist is concerning but not that surprising. The Blue states that are so poorly run are dominated by large cities, also terribly run. (Think of Minnesota, run by former Democrat vice-president candidate Tim Walz and the monstrous fraud by Somali immigrants. Government prosecutors revealed fraud across Minnesota’s social services potentially exceeds $9 billion in stolen taxpayer money, involving fake childcare facilities and fraudulent Medicaid billing that triggered investigations from the FBI, Treasury Department, and Homeland Security).

Independent journalist Nick Shirley’s viral investigation exposed childcare centers receiving millions in taxpayer dollars despite providing zero services to children, bringing national attention to the scale of fraud in Minnesota.

Meanwhile, Walz’s office allegedly retaliated against whistleblowers who tried to sound the alarm, prompting the Minnesota congressional delegation to demand full cooperation with federal investigations and his recusal from probes to ensure transparency.

Walz also threatened to call the Minnesota National Guard out to oppose ICE agents there.

One question is, how many major cities follow New York City’s lead and become socialist environs?

Another big question is whether NYC’s normal residents can survive there? New York City and other leftruled metropolises have been on an out-migration pattern for several years as the left-wing governance has seriously damaged America.

Is America Destroying Itself?

Historian Mark Lewis asked that question in a recent column with the following quote directly beneath it: “If our nation is ever taken over, it will be taken over from within.”—James Madison Then he wrote: “America currently appears to be in the process of destroying itself. The problems are too numerous to list here, but the most recent devolution comes from the Somali financial fraud and the killing of a woman in Minnesota by ICE, which has leftists all over the country rioting, protesting, and calling for a repetition of the George Floyd mayhem of 2020. And this is just the tip of the iceberg of the horrors the nation now faces.”

Later he added: “As an American historian, I cannot recall any president, perhaps any person, in our history who has been hated by as many people as Donald Trump is now loathed by the Left. All presidents have had opposition, of course, but never with the bitterness and odium that Mr. Trump receives. And the transference will be—already is—there. If JD Vance is the Republican nominee for president in 2028, then he will be reviled and detested every bit as much as President Trump is. They represent a movement that is in direct opposition to what the Left cherishes.