“Expanding a New York City program to help struggling tenants pay rent seemed like an obvious campaign promise for Zohran Mamdani, who staked his insurgent candidacy last year on making life more affordable in the five boroughs,” the New York Times reports.

“Now, confronting a grim fiscal picture in his second month as mayor, Mr. Mamdani no longer intends to back the growth of the $1 billion-plus initiative known as CityFHEPS, despite a plan passed by the City Council and upheld in court.”

“The reversal marks the clearest example yet of the clash between the ideology of his democratic socialist campaign and the tough realities of managing a sprawling, costly bureaucracy.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told state lawmakers that the only way out of the city’s $12 billion budget gap is to raise taxes on the wealthy, the New York Post reports.

Said Mandani: “I’m asking for a 2% raise in personal income taxes on the most affluent New Yorkers, someone earning $1 million a year. The top 1% of New York City can afford to contribute $20,000 more in taxes.”

“The Trump administration has withdrawn all federalized National Guard troops from U.S. cities, after its repeated attempts to surge forces into Democrat-run states encountered judicial roadblocks,” the Washington Post reports.

“The pullout was quietly finalized late last month, occurring with no public acknowledgment from the White House or the Pentagon. It was a remarkable turnabout after President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had insisted the mobilizations were necessary to combat what they claimed was unchecked violence and to support enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws.”

Politico: “The young mayor puts in long hours. He approaches the city’s organizational chart with a Bloombergian deference to agency autonomy. And he takes a granular interest in public relations.”

“Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams, channeling his inner Kevin McCallister, rigged City Hall in the waning days of his term with a maze of governmental booby traps primed to stymie his successor, Zohran Mamdani,” Politico reports.

“Most of those efforts failed through a combination of bad timing, limits on Adams’ power and general ham-fistedness. But the former mayor managed to lay one tripwire so consequential that it has triggered weeks of legal and political scrambling — and raised questions about whether it can be disarmed at all.”

“Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has been subpoenaed by the U.S. Justice Department as part of the federal government’s investigation into whether Minnesota officials impeded immigration operations with their public statements,” the Minnesota Star Tribune reports.

The New York Times says at least five Minnesota officials have been subpoenaed, including Gov. Tim Walz.

Zohran Mamdani will make his first appearance on ABC‘s The View next week since he was sworn in as mayor of New York, Deadline reports.

Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) “has a word of warning for Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor she just helped to elect: Back off city politics,” the New York Times reports.

“Tension has quietly been growing between the two Democratic allies for weeks over who should succeed Ms. Velázquez in Congress as she retires after 32 years representing parts of Brooklyn and Queens.”

“But Ms. Velázquez pushed it into the open… when she formally endorsed Antonio Reynoso, the progressive Brooklyn borough president, as her successor, and cautioned the new mayor that his decision to campaign for Assemblywoman Claire Valdez, a fellow democratic socialist, could drive a wedge through the coalition that put him in office.”

“He failed on his campaign promises to tax the rich. Then city council members passed a budget without his blessing. Now his opponents are building a war chest that could be used to unseat him next year,” Bloomberg reports.

“Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is struggling to keep a grip on the third-largest US city and get its strained finances back on track, opening the door for a roster of potential candidates to take his spot in 2027.”

A friendly summit at New York’s City Hall with digital content creators and social media stars symbolized the new mayor’s attitude toward the changing news media, the New York Times reports.

“To those who insist that the era of big government is over, hear me when I say this: No longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorkers’ lives. For too long, we have turned to the private sector for greatness, while accepting mediocrity from those who serve the public.”

— New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, quoted by Politico.

“In one of his first acts as mayor, Zohran Mamdani revoked nine executive orders his predecessor, Eric Adams, issued after his federal corruption indictment, a move that undid actions pertaining to everything from antisemitism and immigration to New York City’s horse carriage industry,” the New York Daily News reports.

“Mamdani said he picked the indictment date as the cutoff because, he suggested, executive actions Adams took after that were tainted.”

Said Mandani: “We have to reckon with why so many New Yorkers have turned away from politics over the last few months, the last few years, the last few decades, and that was a date that marked a moment when many New Yorkers decided that politics held nothing for them.”

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) referred to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D), who is the city’s first Muslim mayor, as “the enemy” after Mamdani chose to be sworn into office with his hand on the Quran, Mediaite reports.

Said Tuberville: “The enemy is inside the gates.”