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Zohran Mamdani began his first full day as New York City mayor on Friday, after his inauguration brought crowds to Manhattan less than a day earlier. In the morning, the new mayor—described by the Associated Press as a 34-year-old Democratic socialist—commuted by subway from a one-bedroom apartment in Queens, with a photo and video crew documenting the trip and neighbors periodically interrupting the ride to wish him well.
As he traveled into Manhattan, Mamdani sat on a Manhattan-bound train while bundled against the cold and also stopped to interact with riders. The report said he took selfies with wide-eyed passengers and reviewed briefing materials in a corner seat. When two French tourists approached him amid the commotion, he introduced himself by holding up that day’s New York Daily News featuring his smiling face and identifying himself as “the new mayor of New York.”
The subway ride quickly drew attention on social media, AP said, casting Mamdani’s public transit commute as both a familiar New York gesture and a calculated piece of symbolism. The report noted that Mamdani’s predecessor, Eric Adams, also rode the subway on his first day, and that Bill de Blasio and Michael Bloomberg made similar transit trips at times when seeking to make a political point.
Mamdani’s day also included immediate administrative steps inside city government, as the report described him moving from symbolic scenes into executive actions. After centering much of his campaign on making rent cheaper for New Yorkers, he ran from his inauguration ceremony on Thursday to a Brooklyn apartment building lobby, where he drew cheering tenants union members as he pledged the city would ramp up an ongoing legal fight against what the report described as an allegedly negligent landlord.
At the same time, AP said Mamdani faced unusual scrutiny early in his term, particularly related to his criticism of Israel and his public support for the Palestinian cause. In an effort to give city government what he described as a “clean slate,” he revoked a slate of Adams’ executive orders issued late in Adams’ term—among them one that officially adopted a contentious definition of antisemitism that includes certain criticism of Israel, and another that barred city agencies and employees from boycotting or divesting from Israel.
The revoked orders triggered backlash, AP reported, including criticism from some Jewish groups and a response posted to social media by the Israeli government. The report included the accusation attributed in that Israeli government post that Mamdani had poured “antisemitic gasoline on an open fire.” When a journalist asked Mamdani on Friday about the revoked orders, he read from prepared remarks and promised his administration would be “relentless in its effort to combat hate and division.”
In those prepared remarks, AP said Mamdani also indicated the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism would remain in place. He further announced the creation of a “mass engagement” office, which he said would continue the work his campaign’s field operation did to bring more New Yorkers into the political fold.
As the day’s events continued, AP said Mamdani stood ringed by supporters and passersby who waited several rows deep to catch a glimpse of him. He acknowledged the stakes of the moment in remarks reported by AP: “We have an opportunity where New Yorkers are allowing themselves to believe in the possibility of city government once again,” he said. “That is not a belief that will sustain itself in the absence of action.”
Beyond the subway ride and early policy announcements, AP said Mamdani’s to-do list also included moving to the mayor’s official residence, a mansion on the Upper East Side in Manhattan, before the lease on his Queens apartment ends later this month.