On November 5, 2025, New York City made history by electing Zohran Mamdani as its mayor, a decision that sent shockwaves through the nation’s political establishment and ignited fierce debate across the ideological spectrum. Mamdani, a self-described socialist, is the city’s first Muslim mayor and a naturalized U.S. citizen, having been born in Uganda to Indian parents before moving to America at age seven and obtaining citizenship in 2018. His victory in the nation’s largest city—often seen as a bellwether for broader political trends—has become a rallying point for both progressives and the far-right, exposing deep fissures in the American political landscape.
According to CubaSí, the election result was met with immediate resistance from some of the most influential figures on the right, including former Trump strategist Steve Bannon. Bannon wasted no time in labeling Mamdani a “Marxist-Jihadi” bent on “bringing Bolshevism to our largest city.” He went further, calling for Mamdani’s American citizenship to be revoked and for the newly elected mayor to be deported. Bannon’s rhetoric was not limited to the campaign trail—he repeated these demands at a Capitol Hill event on November 6, 2025, telling a crowd of conservative staffers that Republicans must “seize complete control of government institutions” before the 2026 midterms, warning, “If we lose the midterms and we lose 2028, some in this room are going to prison.”
Bannon’s remarks, reported by AlterNet, included a direct call for urgency and maximalist action: “We’re burning daylight. We have to codify what Trump has done by executive order.” He argued that the recent Democratic victories in New York City, Virginia, and New Jersey should be a wake-up call for the MAGA movement, not a reason for retreat. “They’re not gonna stop,” Bannon said of Democrats and progressives, “and we have to counter that.” In his view, the way forward is to intensify efforts to cement the Trump agenda in law and overcome what he called “structural barriers” in Washington, D.C., referencing the filibuster and other procedural hurdles.
Bannon’s comments were not delivered in a vacuum. He claimed to have been in discussions with Republican Senators Josh Hawley and Lindsey Graham about his “maximalist strategy,” suggesting that even some so-called “institutionalists” in the party are warming to his approach. “These are what I would call heavy-hitters on the limited-government constitutionalists, in our movement,” Bannon said, adding that more would soon come out publicly in support of his agenda.
The day after Mamdani’s victory, Bannon doubled down in an interview with Politico, stating that the new mayor’s win “should be a wakeup call” to Trump’s nationalist movement. He described Mamdani and his allies as “very serious people” whose focus on affordability and working-class issues posed a real challenge to the right. Bannon’s solution? He called for federal agencies—including the Justice Department, State Department, and Department of Homeland Security—to target Mamdani’s citizenship and pursue his deportation, despite Mamdani’s status as a naturalized citizen.
Donald Trump himself responded to the election results by downplaying their significance, attributing Republican losses in New York, New Jersey, and Virginia to his absence from the ballot. As reported by CubaSí, Trump asserted that had he been running, the outcomes would have been different. Yet, the anxiety among his allies was palpable. The election of a Muslim socialist as mayor of New York City struck at the heart of the Trump movement’s anxieties about demographic change and the left’s growing influence in urban America.
Adding fuel to the fire, Pete Hegseth, Trump’s Secretary of War, took an even more militaristic tone. Hegseth, who has described himself as a modern-day Christian crusader, addressed a gathering of 800 generals on September 30, 2025, warning of an “invasion from within.” He advised military leaders to treat domestic political opposition as a kind of internal enemy, stating, “It is no different from that of an external enemy, but more difficult, in many ways, because they don’t wear uniforms.” Hegseth’s rhetoric, echoing themes from his book American Crusade, was unambiguous: “Islamism is the most dangerous threat to freedom in the world. It cannot be negotiated with, coexisted with, or understood; it must be exposed, marginalized, and crushed.”
This language was not lost on critics. As Bannon’s call for Republicans to “seize the institutions” made the rounds online, reactions were swift and divided. Christopher Webb, a left-leaning political writer, warned on his Substack page, “He’s preparing his audience to see violence and institutional takeover as ‘necessary.’ And he’s counting on Democrats and independents being too divided or too polite to call it what it is.” Georgetown University historian Aviel Roshwald quipped that Bannon’s rhetoric was “motivating Democratic voters.”
The far-right’s focus on Mamdani’s background and beliefs—his Muslim faith, socialist politics, and immigrant roots—has become a flashpoint in the broader debate over what it means to be American. Bannon and Hegseth’s calls to target Mamdani’s citizenship and treat domestic political opponents as enemies have alarmed civil rights advocates and mainstream politicians alike. Many see these moves as part of a broader strategy to delegitimize dissent and concentrate power in the hands of a shrinking, hardline faction.
Meanwhile, Trump has continued to cultivate relationships with like-minded leaders abroad. On November 7, 2025, he met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the White House, praising Hungary’s strict anti-immigration policies. Trump lauded Orbán’s approach, saying, “They should respect Hungary and its leader, and respect them a lot, because he is right about migration … look at what is happening to Europe, it is flooded and its crime rates are skyrocketing (except) in Hungary, where things are done the way they have to be done and the number of illegal migrants is zero. No one can set foot on the border without permission.” Orbán, in turn, secured continued permission to buy energy from Russia without facing U.S. or EU sanctions—a move that further underscored the alignment of nationalist leaders on both sides of the Atlantic.
As the dust settles from the 2025 elections, the battle lines in American politics have rarely been so stark. The rise of Zohran Mamdani in New York City, the intensifying rhetoric from Bannon and Hegseth, and Trump’s international alliances all point to a political moment defined by polarization, urgency, and a willingness to challenge longstanding norms. Whether these strategies will galvanize the Republican base or further alienate moderate voters remains to be seen. What’s clear is that the struggle over the direction of the country—and who gets to define American identity—shows no signs of abating.