Candidates have always made outlandish promises just to get their supporters to go out and vote. However, it was assumed that once the person was elected, these promises would not be fulfilled. Trump changed that dynamic, and Mamdani has followed in his footsteps. Two major events have already occurred in 2026: one locally and one internationally.
The first thing Mamdani did in office was to revoke the Adams administration’s executive order which relied upon the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. He also revoked the executive order that required city agencies to “refrain from procurement practices that are inconsistent with their duties as trustees of the City’s property and are intended to carry out any policy that discriminates against the State of Israel, Israeli citizens based on their national origin, or individuals or entities based on their association with Israel.” There was some pushback by Jewish organizations. Mamdani, by revoking these executive orders, is sending the wrong message.
The best approach to respond to Mamdani is to lie low and let this play out. It is only a matter of time until there is going to be a high-profile antisemitic incident such as occurred on college campuses. Mamdani will denounce it by saying he is against antisemitism. That will be the time to throw his executive orders back in his face and argue that his policies fostered antisemitism. Some things we can do are that for every Jewish charity or organization that Mamdani denounces, we should donate and declare our public support for them. When there was an intimidation protest outside Park Avenue Synagogue, we responded with our own rally of support. That is what we need to do every time there is a similar protest, whether it is near a synagogue or other Jewish institution. In addition, all legal options should be considered. It is important to play the long game. It is a four-year fight, and we need to pick our spots.
The second big event was the Trump administration sending special forces into Venezuela to snatch Maduro and his wife and bring them back to New York to face criminal charges. One could argue that Maduro is a criminal involved in the drug trade and that he needed to be brought to justice. The problem is that the president recently pardoned former Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was brought back to the United States and convicted of drug charges. An alternative argument is that Maduro stole the election and that he is not the legitimate president of Venezuela. The problem is that Trump has dealt with authoritarians who have fixed elections with no qualms. Also, Trump has said that the United States will be running the country. He denigrated the Nobel Prize-winning opposition leader, stating that she lacks any support. Thus, it is clearly not being done because we want to support Venezuela becoming a democracy. Then there is the third reason, which Trump has stated is the real reason: Venezuela has a lot of oil, and the United States wants it. This is not a legitimate reason to take out the leader of a sovereign country. Trump can call it the Donroe Doctrine, which is a play on the Monroe Doctrine of President James Monroe. Many people call it a return to the colonial system where strong countries take over weaker nations and pilfer their resources for the mother countries’ benefit. If the United States can do it, why can’t Russia invade Ukraine or China invade Taiwan? We have gone from the beacon of light to the world to the bully of the world in less than one year.
Not only is it politically dangerous, but it is not realistic to think that the United States will control Venezuela and extract its oil. Maduro may be out, but his cronies are still running the country. Trump can declare that the United States is in control, but it is meaningless without significant boots on the ground. I doubt that there is much support for doing so. One would have expected a big outcry from the isolationist America First MAGA crowd. If anyone but Trump had done it, they would be howling from the rooftops. However, since Trump is doing it, they are either silent or supportive. This is just another example that MAGA is not ideologically based as they pretend to be but is a cult of personality.
Trump should require Congressional authorization to put soldiers in Venezuela, but that never stopped him before. The feckless Republican-led Congress can continue its irrelevance or decide to stand up to Trump. It may take a groundswell of opposition in the country to force their hand.
If this move against Maduro is Trump’s “wag the dog” moment to take our minds off the Epstein files, he is mistaken. It is not going away anytime soon.
It is difficult to predict how this will ultimately end up, especially when it is so early in the process. However, if we must depend on the competence of the Trump administration, I am not too confident how this will play out.