New York Republicans Unveil Bonkers New Anti-Zohran Mamdani Merch

For the low price of $45, New Yorkers can proudly display their racist attitudes against New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

Despite establishment opposition, Mamdani clinched the city’s primary in June with 56 percent of the vote. The Ugandan-born Queens lawmaker’s rise in the Big Apple has not been without intense opposition: many Democratic leaders in New York politics have still refused to endorse him, with some outright attacking him. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand baselessly claimed that Mamdani condoned “global jihad,” a statement that her communication director quickly had to walk back.

But it’s been Republicans who have proven especially venomous in the wake of Mamdani’s surprise win. On Friday, the New York Young Republican Club unveiled its newest merchandise: a blue shirt plastered with the text “Deport Zohran.”

“A new era is coming to New York City,” the item description reads. “With a dash of Che Guevera and modern populist overtones, our tee flips the script on socialism as we take back the city we love. Don’t just cast your vote, rep it too!”

(The website misspells the last name of Cuban Revolution figure Che Guevara.)

The shirt’s manufacturing details explain that it’s 100 percent cotton, side-seamed construction with shoulder-to-shoulder taping, and is “made in the USA, unlike Zohran.”

The unabashed xenophobia is no doubt thanks, in part, to Donald Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric. The president has recently directed his attention towards the Democratic Socialist, threatening to arrest Mamdani and initiate a federal takeover of New York City if the 33-year-old is elected to Gracie Mansion.

“If a Communist gets elected to run New York, it can never be the same. But we have tremendous power at the White House to run places where we have to,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday. “We’re going to straighten out New York. It’s going to—maybe we’re going to have to straighten it out from Washington.”

Trump did not specify by which authority he planned to intervene in New York’s democratic processes.

A new Gallup poll indicates dramatic shifts in Americans’ attitudes regarding Donald Trump’s signature issue, suggesting that the president may be overshooting his supposed mandate on immigration.

Strikingly, the share of U.S. adults who want less immigration, 30 percent, is down 25 points from last year, and the polling firm also reports that 79 percent of Americans—a record high—say immigration is a good thing for the country. More Republicans (64 percent) now hold a positive view of immigration than they have since the very beginning of the Trump era.

According to Gallup, Donald Trump’s handling of immigration is at 35 percent approval and 62 percent disapproval, and, notably, the public’s preferences are shifting away from more aggressive methods of immigration enforcement.

For example, since 2024, there have been 4- and 8-point increases, respectively, in support for paths to citizenship for immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children and for those living in the U.S. illegally, whereas support for hiring more border patrol agents, expanding border walls, and deporting all undocumented immigrants are down 17, 8, and 9 points, respectively.

While Republicans still overwhelmingly favor the more strict of these policies, their preferences, too, reflect these shifts. Compared to last year, Republican support for a path to citizenship for immigrants brought illegally as children is up 7 points (now at 71 percent) and for a path to citizenship for those living in the U.S. illegally is up 13 points (at 59 percent). Meanwhile, Republican support for deporting all undocumented immigrants has taken a 7-point dip.

These results show the president grossly overestimating his “mandate” on immigration. The numbers also give the lie to the notion, common among centrist politicians and pundits during and in the aftermath of the 2024 election, of immigration as an unwinnable issue that Democrats should surrender to hardline immigration policies.

Opposing Donald Trump’s cuts to PBS and NPR could cost Republicans a critical midterm endorsement.

The White House has asked Congress to cut $9.4 billion in spending before July 18, including $8.3 billion in rescissions to international assistance programs and ending $1.1 billion in funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which oversees PBS and NPR.

The president issued a clear threat to conservatives considering rejecting his latest legislative effort, posting to Truth Social Thursday evening that the two publicly funded media organizations had to go.

“It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC put together,” Trump wrote, referring to the cable news network MSNBC. “Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement.”

But that hasn’t stopped Republicans from speaking out.

South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds said that he’s apprehensive to end media access in rural areas, noting that the goal amongst the opposition isn’t to elimination provisions in the package but “specifically to take care of those that were in some of these rural areas,” such as parts of South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Alaska, according to CBS News.

“There’s a specific group of Native American tribes that have a public radio system set up, and really the vast majority of the funding for it comes from one source, and that’s within the rescission package,” Rounds told reporters. “What we’re trying to do is to work with [the Office of Management and Budget] to find a path forward where the funding for those radio stations would be left alone.”

Montana Senator Steve Daines, West Virginia Senator Shelly Moore Capito, and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski were similarly concerned with the package’s cuts to the public broadcasting organizations. Concerns about ceding funds from the Center for Public Broadcasting, which maintains the Emergency Broadcasting System, have been particularly sharp in the wake of severe flooding in Texas, which killed at least 120 people after authorities failed to notify residents of the rising water levels.

“I hope you feel the urgency that I’m trying to express on behalf of the people in rural Alaska and I think in many parts of rural America where this is their lifeline,” Murkowski told Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought at a Senate Appropriations hearing last month. “This is where they get the updates on [landslides], this is where they get the updates on the wildfires that are coming their way.”

Rounds, Daines, Capito, and Susan Collins are up for reelection in 2026, while Murkowski has already forgone Trump’s support: the Alaska lawmaker won without his endorsement in 2022.

Whether Murkowski will follow through on her defense of the media organizations is unclear, however, after she suddenly caved on Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” earlier this month. Her vote helped to pass a piece of legislation that will make the rich richer while stripping 17 million Americans of their health care.

President Donald Trump plans to raise tariffs on Canadian imports by 35 percent, upending whatever progress the two countries had made on a trade deal, if any.

“As you will recall, the United States imposed tariffs on Canada to deal with our nation’s fentanyl crisis, which is caused, in part, by Canada’s failure to stop the drugs from pouring into our country,” Trump wrote to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in a letter published on Truth Social Thursday night. “Instead of working with the United States, Canada retaliated with its own tariffs. Starting August 1, 2025, we will charge Canada a tariff of 35 percent on Canadian products sent into the United States, separate from all Sectoral tariffs.”

Trump’s tariffs are more threats than actual tariffs right now and the letter itself looks like many others he has sent to foreign leaders and posted on social media. The August 1 deadline is also a significant extension from the initial July 8 one the president announced this spring. Nothing is final here, but Trump is further rupturing relations with one of the U.S.’s closest allies—and one of its most important trading partners.

Another difference in this letter—Trump is using fentanyl as a scapegoat for this destructive tariff, continuing to spread the often-debunked thinking that Canada plays some significant role in trafficking fentanyl into the U.S. when the opposite is true. Canada is not a major player in U.S. fentanyl trafficking, and the tariffs Trump is levying do not reflect the reality of the epidemic.

“Canada has made vital progress to stop the scourge of fentanyl in North America. We are committed to continuing to work with the United States to save lives and protect communities in both our countries,” Prime Minister Carney responded on X. “We are building Canada strong. The federal government, provinces and territories are making significant progress in building one Canadian economy. We are poised to build a series of major new projects in the national interest. We are strengthening our trading partnerships throughout the world.”

Border czar Tom Homan said the Trump administration is looking for more countries to send undocumented immigrants, as part of its inhumane policy of third country deportations.

During an interview with Politico’s Dasha Burns, Homan said the government plans to make deals with “many countries” to exile migrants and noncitizens there, indicating that there were other “signed agreements” in place but declining to say with whom.

“When you’ve got countries that won’t take their nationals back, and they can’t stay here, we find another country willing to accept them,” Homan said.

This week, Trump met with the leaders of five African countries, including Liberia, Gabon, Mauritania, and Senegal, which appeared on a list of 51 countries the government has asked to accept deportees. Already, at least seven countries have agreed to accept people swept up by the Trump administration’s massive deportation scheme. Trump said that the African summit was to focus on “commercial opportunities,” and a trade deal could include such an agreement.

Last month, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to set immigrants adrift in random countries where they have no connections, dealing a severe blow to the rule of law by effectively rewarding the White House for violating court orders opposing third country deportations.

Homan also revealed that he does not know the status of the eight men who were deported and then cruelly held by ICE in a shipping container in South Sudan.

“They’re living in Sudan. And will they stay in Sudan? I don’t know,” Homan said. “When we sign these agreements with all these countries, we make arrangements to make sure these countries are receiving these people and there’s opportunities for these people. But I can’t tell if we remove somebody to Sudan—they can stay there a week and leave. I don’t know.”

The Trump administration had previously ignored rulings from federal judges not to carry out deportations to South Sudan, which is in the midst of violence and political unrest, with the State Department warning Americans not to visit.