Mamdani tauges criticism with a trip abroad to Uganda during the New York mayor campaign

The candidate for the Democratic Socialist Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, shamelessly announced a prolonged trip to Africa on Sunday while he campaigned to lead the largest American city.

Mamdani, who beat Andrew Cuomo by more than 12 percentage points last month, guaranteeing the Democratic appointment for the mayor of New York, published a video anticipating criticism of his trip to Uganda.

In a provocative but playful tone, Mamdani called what he said that he had been “thousands” of messages on X telling him to “return to Uganda where you come from and belong” and “return to Africa”.

“Being a politician means listening, not only for your supporters, but also your criticism,” said Mamdani. “And some of these criticisms – in particular on a certain website – gave me coherent advice.”

“I hear you and I agree. I go back to Uganda,” said Mamdani.

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Zohran Mamdani attended a Union DC 37 approval event on July 15, 2025 in New York. (Spencer Platt / Getty images)

The hope of mayor said that he was heading for Uganda “personally” to celebrate his marriage to his wife, Rama, with their family and friends.

“I want to apologize to enemies because I will come back,” he said. Mamdani added in the post X of accompaniment that it would be back “at the end of the month”.

To assert control of the story, Mamdani made the headlines of imaginary newspapers condemning his trips abroad.

“And since you will undoubtedly read this trip to the New York Post, Inshallah (Arab for God Willing), on the first page, here are some of my humble suggestions for the headlines,” said Mamdani, swinging in the newspaper based in New York.

He proposed tabloid titles such as “Mia? Mandani in Africa”, “Uganda Miss Me” or “He is Kampala-Ely Crazy”, a reference to Kampala, the capital and the largest city in Uganda.

Mamdani also suggested the big titles: “It is not serious!” And “Carl Kampalanile investigation Mamdani” – a satirical vision by the name of the American investigation journalist Carl Bernstein, who discovered the Watergate scandal.

“Zo-Running Away?” Mamdani said, offering a last title imagined before the video showed itself and another supporter of the campaign waving on the camera and the screen fading to “Zohran for the mayor”.

Zohran Mamdani is expressed during a Union DC 37 approval event on July 15, 2025 in New York. (Spencer Platt / Getty images)

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Mamdani has American and Ugandan citizenship. He was born in Uganda and grew up in South Africa until you move to New York at the age of 7.

It has four acres of unlikely land in Jinja, Uganda, which is estimated between $ 150,000 and $ 250,000, the New York Post Previously, indicated, citing the New York legislative ethics file in 2024 of Mamdani.

Despite this, the social networks video resurfaces shows that Mamdani in the past has launched “the abolition of private property” – a principle of communism.

His mother is an acclaimed American Indian filmmaker. She has had a loft of almost $ 2 million in New York for about a decade before recently selling the property, according to at the post.

His father is a professor of the University of Columbia who sits on the advisory council of an anti-Israeli organization. The organization supports boycotts and sanctions of Israel, regularly accuses the Israeli government of committing a “genocide” and expressed its sympathy for the suicide bomber.

The candidacy of Mamdani aroused the concern of the Jewish community, while he refused to condemn the term “globalize the intifada” – a position which he has since gone up while courting the owners of local businesses. Meanwhile, the New York City College campuses, including the Columbia University, had to face anti-Israeli and anti-Israeli demonstrations and camps following October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas terrorists in Israel.

Senator Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani enter an elevator after a meeting in the building of the Dirksen Senate office on July 16, 2025, in Washington, DC (Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images)

Mamdani himself defended BDS, or the boycott, disinvestment and sanctions, saying to a town hall in May that the anti-Israeli movement “conforms to my heart of my policy, which is non-violence”.

Mamdani’s criticisms also condemned the way he campaigned on socialist ideals, including grocery stores managed by the government and rent gels, despite his rich education.

Having won the primary of the Democrat mayor, Mamdani has become the favorite, and he is supported by progressives at the Congress, notably the representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Dn.y., and Senator Bernie Sanders, I-VT.

The head of the Senate minority, Chuck Schumer, Dn.y., and the minority head of the Hakeem Jeffries room, Dn.y., were more cautious with Mamdani.

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It is extremely rare for candidates who win the primary of the Democrat mayor to lose the general elections in November, but Mamdani still faces Cuomo, who officially declared his independent candidacy for the town hall last week. The outgoing mayor Eric Adams also presents himself as independent, as was the former federal prosecutor Jim Walden. The founder of “Guardian Angels”, Curtis Sliwa, is the Republican candidate for the town hall.

Andrew Mark Miller from Fox News, Cameron Cawthorne and Deirdre Heavy contributed to this report.