America's most populous city is days away from possibly electing a self-defined socialist as its mayor. A former Trump administration official told Fox News Digital a win for Zohran Mamdani could mark a shift toward Marxism in New York City.
"I could never fathom the thought of having a Marxist leading my city, the crown jewel city of the United States, of the world, of the free world," Gene Hamilton, America First Legal co-founder and president, told Fox News Digital.
The heated New York City mayoral race has garnered national attention as former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, now running as an independent, Mamdani and Republican Curtis Sliwa face off in an all-out battle to govern the city.
Hamilton, who formerly served as White House deputy counsel, noted some polls have shown a divide between U.S. and foreign-born voters, with those coming from outside the country leaning more toward the young socialist. Hamilton said he sees this as evidence of long-failed immigration policies and a shift away from promoting assimilation and toward pushing integration.
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"One of the things we've seen over the last several decades is an emphasis amongst many social organizations, nonprofits, the government itself, on this concept of pushing integration and not assimilation. 'Assimilation' was treated as a dirty word," Hamilton said, highlighting resistance against pushing for immigrants to adopt American culture.
He said the difference is that integration now means that "we're integrating you from whatever background you have, whatever political ideology you have, and we're just integrating you into society and everyone else has to deal with it."
While Hamilton acknowledges that immigration can create appreciation for cultures, he asserted that this does not mean that those coming to the U.S. can ignore the existing culture they're moving into. He also emphasized the importance of upholding existing immigration laws, arguing that enforcement is not just about border control but about protecting American values.
"There are prohibitions, there are restrictions from the admission of individuals for many, many reasons," he told Fox News Digital. "You can't admit somebody to the United States who's been a member of a totalitarian party or communist party. There are people that you can't submit because they're going to engage in certain types of activity.
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"There is an oath that every naturalized citizen has to take as part of becoming a citizen. They are promising to the United States government that they are renouncing any existing foreign ties and obligations, and, instead, they're embracing this new American identity. And so all of this wraps together to this devaluation of the value of an American, the American identity, the quintessential American identity that dominated perceptions across the world for decades and decades," Hamilton added.
When it comes to the contentious New York City race, Hamilton said that it shows that the U.S. has brought in "a lot of people" and has failed to teach the importance of Western values, of the U.S. Constitution and what the founders fought for. He said he believes the sacrifices of those who built the country are being "shunted aside towards this belief, this ideological suicide in some ways, that we can just bring anyone from anywhere across the world."
He said the belief that as long as immigrants "provide some kind of economic enhancement to the country of any kind — whether that's as an Uber driver or whether it's as a nuclear scientist — that we should just welcome it all the same, treat them all the same and we're all greatly enriched because of it just (defies) common sense."
During last year's presidential election, immigration took center stage as many saw the Biden administration's handling of the border as a failure. This heavily affected then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who was, at one point, tapped to be the country's border czar.
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Hamilton reflected on how the American people "outright rejected the open borders mentality of the Biden administration," adding that it went beyond the rejection of open land borders and also the bringing in of people from all across the world.
"Things take time. It takes years for things to change, but we are now dealing with the consequences of years of failure up until now. We have a real chance to fix it now. Donald Trump is fixing things on the national level. The people of New York still have a chance to make this right. But things are looking really bad," Hamilton said.
Hamilton also touched on the mentality New York Republicans should have while heading to the polls. Despite there being a Republican candidate in the race, there are those who believe that voting for Cuomo would hurt Mamdani, while voting for Sliwa would help him.
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"I think it's really hard," Hamilton said. "Ultimately, I know a lot of people like Sliwa. He seems like a wonderful man. I don't know him personally. And so you can stand proud and support on principle, voting for a Republican. But, at the end of the day, you also have to accept and recognize reality sometimes. And whatever it takes to ensure that you do get a Marxist in office is a reasonable decision to make. And, so, if that means holding your nose and voting for Cuomo, that's a personal decision to make."
Even with the national election long over and the 2025 races just days away, there are those who are thinking about next year's midterms and how a Mamdani win could shift the tides.
"Certainly, I think you'll see the Democratic Party rally around him and the energy behind his election as a means to try to turn out the vote in 2026 for their preferred candidates, to get this kind of more Marxist message out there and accepted," Hamilton said, adding that the possibly disastrous consequences of Mamdani's policies may not be evident immediately.
"It might take time to see the consequences of his disastrous policies. New York might not get trashed overnight," he added.
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