Mamdani offers a contrast to Trump’s vision for America in a 250th anniversary address

The New York mayor gave a solidly pro-immigration speech, flanked by recently naturalized citizens, hours before the president plans to give his own address at Mount Rushmore.

In a speech marking America’s 250th anniversary, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani rejected President Donald Trump’s view of the nation, and especially of its immigrants, without naming him directly.

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Mamdani criticized Trump’s immigration policies from City Hall while sitting behind a desk that once belonged to George Washington and flanked by recently naturalized U.S. citizens, rebuking the view held by “the powerful” that America “becomes less the more people it welcomes.”

“America, they will tell you, belongs only to those with the right accent or the right shade of skin. The rest of us, they insist, should be grateful for merely being allowed to visit. How small they are. How weak, how unoriginal,” the mayor said.