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Reality killed the TikTok star.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s carefully manicured online image took another hit this week when the lefty pol had to back down on his ridiculous vow to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — just the latest in a string of polished promises that failed the real-world test.
Free bus rides for all New Yorkers, a tax hike for the Big Apple’s upper crust and cheaper groceries for everyone — all of them pie-in-the-sky campaign promises that have fizzled out of the gate.
Meanwhile, critics contend Mamdani is so fixated on ideological wars that he’s forgetting the job he was hired to do — run the city.
“Mayor Mamdani knew that he does not have legal authority to arrest Prime Minister Netanyahu, yet he continues with his blood libels against Israel,” the Israeli General Consul said in a statement.
“He should start focusing on the people of his city instead of meddling in matters he doesn’t understand.”
The social democrat mayor, who repeatedly harped on the Israeli leader on the campaign trail and in his curated online profiles, was finally forced to admit he doesn’t have the juice to lock up Netanyahu when he visits the city — but continues to flash his disdain for the Jewish state
Local pols told The Post that Mamdani’s online polish gives him a “get out of jail” free card — but it won’t last if he doesn’t follow through on his online persona.
Part of the Mamdani sales pitch was a vow “to make buses fast and free,” but the estimated $1 billion price tag put the brakes on the idea right away and it has gone nowhere.
Mamdani said he would impose a corporate tax and a 2% personal income tax on “the most affluent New Yorkers,” but neither has happened, with the controversial “pied-a-tierre tax’ on second, non-residence homes coming the closest — and that came from Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Hizzoner also pitched a plan to open public, city-owned grocery stores in every borough to make essentials more affordable. However, only two locations have been identified, and the first won’t be stocking the shelves until 2027 at the earliest.
Mamdani also promised a $1 billion “community safety” program that would replace the NYPD on most 911 calls, and yet only two staffers have been assigned and cops continue to respond to the calls.
He also said he would “freeze the rent,” and while he stacked the rent-stabilization board with like-minded lefties, a lawsuit filed by landlords this week has cast doubt on that crusade.
The latest promise to fizzle is the unrealistic claim that he would have Netanyahu busted.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November 2024 for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity over the war in Gaza, and Mamdani bragged he would execute the warrant if the Israeli prime minister set foot in the five boroughs — which is about to happen.
But in a typically polished social media video earlier this week, Mamdani admitted he doesn’t have the authority to pull it off — even while he continues to dabble in what he himself described as “universal politics.”
Meanwhile, a fifth New Yorker has died from a troubling outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease on the Upper East Side that has infected dozens of people, with city lawmakers blasting the mayor for not acting.
On Tuesday, City Council Speaker Julie Menin unveiled a bill that calls for stepped up efforts to address the deadly outbreak — and slams City Hall for not doing enough, particulary after a similar outbreak in Harlem last year killed five people.
“But public health depends on public trust — and public trust depends on timely, transparent communication and action,” Menin wrote in a follow-up Op-Ed in The Post. “This outbreak exposed a dangerous gap between what our laws require and how the city executes them.”
Veteran Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf said that’s where Mamdani needed to focus — not on an international debate over Israel that has nothing to do with.
“Legionnaires’ disease knocks off Manhattanites and the best this guy can do is to pretend he’s got powers that he doesn’t,” Sheinkopf said. “This proves again that hating Jews gets you news but fighting for dying New Yorkers gets you zero.”
At the same time Mamdani was also slow to react to a homeless encampment along more than a dozen city blocks along Manhattan’s West Side, dragging his feet for days — then botching the response.
City Hall wasted more than a week to address the issue despite concerns from locals about the filthy shantytown, where drugs and sex were peddled in the shadow of the Intrepid Museum.
When Mamdani finally had city workers and police move in, the vagrants simply relocated.
Still, supporters said they stand behind their man, and said New Yorkers just have to give him time.
“He’s like a bullfighter and he’s just dancing with everyone in a good way,” said Jose Bayona, CEO of Grassroots Strategies and executive director of the mayor’s Office of Ethnic and Community Media.
“The first year is the honeymoon, and he is extending that, and we don’t know yet if it’s anything,” Bayona said. “We will know in 2027. Have to give the guy one or two years.”
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