How Zohran Mamdani mastered Trump's 'Art of the Deal'

Every generation has technological habits that confuse the next. Recording TV shows on a thing called a VCR. Sending free SMSes from a bootleg site. Burning CDs. Downloading wallpapers on Santa Banta.

Each chore sounds arcanely archaic to the next generation.And the chances are that if you grew up in the early noughties and developed a taste for English music to fit in with anglicised Macaulayputras, you downloaded songs from illegal torrent sites before playing them on Winamp. You might have sung along to how it no longer matters, tried to memorise the lyrics to Lose Yourself (What comes after “Mom’s spaghetti”?) and definitely knew that space may be the final frontier, but it’s made in a Hollywood basement. And much like that, Zohran Mamdani feels like he was conceived in a left-liberal lab to tick all the boxes.The New York mayor is a gallimaufry of values global progressives hold dear: being anti-Israel, being anti-Hindu, being anti-rich, underperforming in SAT exams, trying to pass oneself off as a different race and blaming one’s problems on everyone but oneself.But Mamdani has managed something that none of his progressive peers has: winning while paying the mildest obeisance to the values that his various constituencies hold dear.

And he does it while complaining about things without giving the impression of being bitter.Of course, he’s aided and abetted by a mainstream press that waxes lyrical about him as though he’s the second coming of Obama and never gets pushback about his mendacities. For example, during a debate between New York mayoral hopefuls, he claimed that Muslims don’t even exist in Gujarat, an obvious mendacity that would have been called out if it had come from a white politician wearing a red cap. But then again, Kamala Harris has claimed that her grandfather was an Indian freedom fighter, despite his having been part of the Imperial Civil Service under the Crown, and not one American publication has fact-checked her.

Those checks are reserved only for Tucker Carlson and white people wearing red caps.But Zohran is exceptionally good at what critics call virtue-signalling but smart people know is making the right noise. Take his smart and masterful handling of the RSS chief’s upcoming event at Madison Square Garden, where he made his mild disdain known before pointing out that it was a private event and he couldn’t do anything to stop it. It was the kind of political manoeuvring that has seen him become the only Democrat who has been able to get more than a fair shake out of Donald Trump.The RSS manoeuvre contained Mamdani’s method in miniature. He gave his progressive supporters the condemnation they wanted, acknowledged that the organisers had the right to hold a private event and ensured that City Hall would not be held responsible for stopping something it had no power to stop. Everyone received something from the deal, especially Mamdani.Interestingly, Donald Trump laid down 11 rules for successful deal-making in The Art of the Deal. Mamdani’s first eight months as mayor suggest that he has followed Trump’s rules more faithfully than most people who actually work for Trump.Rule 1: Think bigMamdani’s campaign was full of big promises to turn the Big Apple into a utopia of affordable homes, parks, schools and union jobs. The minor hitch is that it needs money from a federal government headed by a man he labelled a “despot” and “fascist”. That didn’t stop Mamdani from smiling into Trump’s embrace with a fake New York Daily News header and the promise of something Trump had coveted long before he became POTUS: love from New York.

The money might or might not arrive, but Mamdani did get Trump to release an ICE detainee, which shows that he has completely understood Trump’s maxim of thinking big.Rule 2: Protect the downside and the upside will take care of itselfThis is easier said than done, but Mamdani managed it by retaining NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch, who also happens to be a billionaire heiress. This allowed him to distance himself from the politically charged “Defund the Police” chant and even claim credit for major crime and murder rates falling by 5.8% and 24.7% in the first six months of 2026.

Mamdani did the same with the Israel Day Parade, appearing with Tisch to announce security for it while staying away, so Palestinians got the boycott they wanted while Jewish New Yorkers received the protection.

The art of being present yet absent would have made Schrödinger smile.Rule 3: Maximise your optionsIn Game of Thrones, Cersei Lannister explained to Littlefinger: “Power is power.” And it’s something Mamdani has learnt well.

He opposed mayoral control of New York’s public schools but, hours after taking office, reversed course, asked Albany to extend mayoral control and appointed his chancellor.Mamdani promised to use the system more democratically than his predecessors because ending it might have satisfied his progressive supporters but would have surrendered a powerful lever. Instead, he explained to parents that he was in charge.

Rule 4: Know your marketNew Yorkers are, perhaps after Indians, the most politically disagreeable people on a vast number of topics, from Gaza and policing to whether Colin Jost should be dropped from SNL, but they all agree that rent is too high. Whatever happens in other parts of the world is secondary.In June, the Rent Guidelines Board, dominated by Mamdani appointees, voted 7-1 to freeze rents on one-year and two-year leases covering roughly one million rent-stabilised apartments.

Now, landlords warn that this will lead to wear and tear, reduce maintenance and make the situation worse, but tenants vastly outnumber landlords and, in a democracy, populism, not economic logic, always wins.Rule 5: Use your leverageEvery politician knows that you can’t always get what you want, but if you try hard enough, you will get what you need. Mamdani demanded $5.5 billion from Albany through higher taxes on corporations, warning that failure could force a 9.5% property-tax hike in New York.

Governor Kathy Hochul refused but eventually gave enough fiscal help for Mamdani to withdraw the threat, allowing both to declare victory. Many years ago, American scholar Stephen P.

Cohen said that Pakistan negotiates with the world by holding a gun to its own head, and while Mamdani might have descended from this side of the border, he showed that you can use leverage with a hint of self-sabotage.Rule 6: Enhance your locationTrump argued that “location, location, location” was misunderstood.

A real-estate developer didn’t need the best address, only the best deal, and that could be done with promotion and psychology. He often cited Trump Plaza on Third Avenue as an example.Mamdani appears to have used that logic for municipal groceries, and instead of paying New York’s astronomical rents, the city will place five stores in publicly owned properties, with the city covering rent and property taxes. Unfair to existing grocers? Sure, but that’s how one changes the game and gives the appearance of change without making a real change.Rule 7: Get the word outLong before the attention economy came around, Donald Trump wrote that the greatest product in the world is worthless if nobody knows about it. A tree falling in a forest with no observer makes no noise. That’s one piece of advice that took Mamdani from a virtual unknown to being dubbed the “Everywhere Mayor” by The New Yorker.He appears on reels, streets and Taxi TV, while his Office of Mass Engagement carries his campaign machinery into City Hall.

Budgets become explainers, potholes become videos and municipal announcements become content. Most mayors govern and then publicise. Mamdani governs through publicity, ensuring New Yorkers encounter him even when they are trying to hail a cab.Rule 8: Fight backRule 8 is perhaps the one rule that Trump has mastered himself, after facing the full onslaught of America’s four estates for four years before making a comeback to the White House. Mamdani has found his opponent in Amazon, an organisation that makes LuthorCorp look like a mum-and-pop store, through the Delivery Protection Act. This would impose employment and safety rules on warehouses and give Mamdani the pantomime Lex Luthor he needs to keep his base happy.

Rule 9: Deliver the goodsNow, this one is open to interpretation as America carries on its never-ending war on Iran under Trump, who appears to have interpreted “goods” as bombs and never-ending ceasefire agreements. Mamdani has opted for parcels. In his first 100 days, the administration secured $9.3 million in restitution for workers, including settlements that produced $5 million for delivery workers. The buses aren’t free and the groceries might not work, but Mamdani has delivered enough “goods” to keep New Yorkers from asking when the rest of the order will arrive.Rule 10: Contain the costsNow, this isn’t a precept the Trump administration follows anymore, given its vacillating trade wars and tariffs. Mamdani, however, discovered fiscal conservatism when the City Council approved one-time payments of up to $10,000 for school paraprofessionals at a cost exceeding $300 million.Despite campaigning with the teachers’ union and promising better pay, Mamdani allowed the measure to become law without signing it and then sued to block it, arguing that it had bypassed collective bargaining.Ergo, a socialist mayor is fighting a union-backed payment to low-paid workers in defence of collective bargaining. Otto von Bismarck would have heartily approved because politics is, after all, the art of the possible.Rule 11: Have funFinally, Mamdani has definitely followed the last rule of Trump’s playbook by looking like the only progressive having fun in the era of Trump. While his reels and social-media game have always been top-drawer, even his teams are performing miracles. Mamdani is now basking in the afterglow of what The Athletic has named “Mamdani’s Sports Summer”, much to the chagrin of Fox acolytes, who are fuming about the Mamdani Effect.

But sports fandom runs on superstitions, and Mamdani’s ascent has seen Arsenal win the league for the first time since 2004 and the Knicks win the NBA championship for the first time since 1973.As the Bengali poet MD Ahnaf Hossain, whose art is now being compared to Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam, chanted: “My mayor’s Muslim, my bagel’s Jewish, the Pope’s on our side, Knicks in five.”Trump might have written The Art of the Deal, but at this moment, it looks as though it is Zohran Mamdani who is living up to it.