04/27/2026
Barack Obama just met Zohran Mamdani for the first time. At a preschool. In the South Bronx. They read a children's book and sang "Wheels on the Bus." And in between, they discussed the mayor's vision for the city.
That's what leadership looks like right now. While Trump is threatening to "start dropping bombs again" and posting AI images of himself as Jesus, a 34-year-old democratic socialist mayor and a former president sat on the floor with three-year-olds and read them a book called "Alone and Together." Obama asked Mamdani what "flourish" means when the word came up in the story. "I knew you were going to pass that to me," Mamdani said, laughing. "It means that we're doing really well."
And they are.
Mamdani is 100 days into his tenure. He just passed New York's first pied-a-terre tax on luxury properties worth more than $5 million, raising $500 million for free childcare, cleaner streets, and safer neighborhoods.
His approval is at 48 percent. 56 percent of New Yorkers say the city is moving in the right direction, up from 31 percent before he was elected. He ran on universal childcare. He's building it. He ran on taxing the rich. He's doing it. And today he's sitting with Obama in a preschool that represents exactly what that tax money will fund.
Obama didn't endorse Mamdani during the race. But before election day, he called the then-candidate and told him the world would be watching to see whether a democratic socialist could actually run America's largest city. He offered to be a sounding board. Today was the first time they met face to face.
Trump responded to Mamdani's tax on Thursday by posting that the mayor was "DESTROYING New York" and threatening to pull federal funding. Mamdani said he wasn't surprised. He kept reading to the kids.
This is the contrast. One leader threatens cities that tax billionaires. The other sits on the floor with preschoolers and builds the programs those taxes pay for. One rages on Truth Social. The other sings "Wheels on the Bus" in the Bronx.