Poll: Zohran Mamdani Is Crushing the NYC Mayor’s Race

Zohran Mamdani is maintaining a major lead in the race for New York City mayor, according to a new poll from The New York Times and Siena University.

Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, is the preferred candidate of 46 percent of likely voters, handily beating competitors Andrew Cuomo, Curtis Sliwa, and Eric Adams. Former Governor Cuomo trails Mamdani in second, with 24 percent of the vote, then Republican Sliwa at 15 percent, and current Mayor Adams at a dismal 9 percent.

Those polled indicated that Mamdani, a democratic socialist, was the best candidate to address their top two concerns: affordability and housing. And around 60 percent of likely voters said that Mamdani was “inspirational”—he’s the only candidate viewed positively by a majority of voters, according to the poll.

Unlike the primary, which employed ranked-choice voting, the general election in November will be a head-to-head race. However, it’s shaping up to be anything but traditional: In deep-blue New York City, the Democratic primary is usually more important than the general in determining the city’s next mayor.

But though Mamdani appears to be headed for victory, he’ll be challenged by two other Democrats, both running as independents: Cuomo, who suffered an unexpectedly brutal loss in the primary, and Adams, whose corruption-plagued tenure seems to be seriously affecting his reelection bid.

And then there’s Sliwa, the Republican candidate, who non-New Yorkers may be surprised to learn does not have the backing of the Trump administration—but is still polling higher than current Mayor Adams.

However, the president has still attempted to pull strings behind the scenes. President Donald Trump and strategists have reportedly been brainstorming ways to get Adams and Sliwa to drop out, creating a one-to-one race between Mamdani and Cuomo, the president’s preferred candidate.

Were that to happen, the new poll shows Mamdani’s lead enduring but shrinking significantly: Mamdani came in with 48 percent of the vote and Cuomo with 44.

Nearly a million fewer jobs were created between April 2024 and March 2025 than previously reported, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The new data, published Tuesday morning, speaks to a weak job market during both former President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump’s terms—and is another harbinger of economic turbulence to come.

Despite what monthly payroll tallies indicated, employers added 911,000 fewer jobs from last April until this March. This implies that only 850,000 jobs were actually added to the economy during that time, just half as many as previously reported, according to The New York Times.

This is the second time in a week that Americans have been hit with troubling economic news.

On Friday, the August jobs report revealed that unemployment has risen to a nearly four-year high, and the United States only added 22,000 jobs that month—an underperformance from the projected 75,000.

Annual revisions are normal, but this one is pretty significant: it’s the largest since the 2008 recession. It also comes at a bad time for Trump, who just fired the head of the BLS last month because her jobs report was weaker than expected.

It seems as if the president’s economy is shrinking: The number of foreign-born workers is declining as Trump deports immigrants en masse, and it’s likely that the number of native-born workers isn’t rising to meet the difference. Tariffs are causing people to buy less, and the number of unemployed Americans has grown larger than the stock of available jobs.

No wonder economists are saying that we may be “on the brink” of a recession.

It’s unclear whether President Trump plans to run again in 2028, despite the Twenty-Second Amendment unambiguously barring a president from being elected for a third term.

In a Monday evening interview, Fox News host Brett Baier broached the subject with Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett—and the wording of the Trump appointee’s response alarmed some observers.

“The Twenty-Second Amendment says you can only run for office for two terms,” Baier said.

“True,” answered Barrett.

“You think that that’s cut and dry?”

“Well, that’s, you know, that’s what the amendment says, right?” Barrett said. “After FDR had four terms, that’s what that amendment says.”

Many online were concerned that Barrett had left room for interpretation, among them California Governor Gavin Newsom, who wrote on X, “The answer is: YES.”

In an appearance on CBS last week, Barrett—currently on a book tour—gave a better answer when interviewer Norah O’Donnell noted that she “explicitly write[s] in the book that the Constitution ‘leaves no room for second guessing when it comes to term limits.’”

“The Twenty-Second Amendment sets a two-term limit,” Barrett said, again citing the history of the amendment’s enactment after Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four elections. “So really, I can’t say anything else but just point to the Twenty-Second Amendment. If you ask the question how many terms a president can serve, I would point to the Twenty-Second amendment.”

Trump, for his part, has teetered on the question of whether he sees himself as constrained by the Twenty-Second Amendment—not to mention the Constitution in general.

In March, he told NBC’s Kristen Welker that he was “not joking” about considering a third term. There are “methods” by which he could do so, he claimed, one being if Vice President JD Vance was to win the presidency, then pass the baton to Trump.

In May, however, Trump declared to Welker that he will be “a two-term president”—though he seemingly couldn’t help but add, “There are ways of doing it.” In August, he said he would “like to run” again but “probably won’t.”

Online, the president sells “TRUMP 2028” hats, with the product description stating: “Rewrite the rules with the Trump 2028 high crown hat.”

President Trump greenlit Israel’s Tuesday bombing of Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, according to Israeli sources speaking with the media after the shocking attack.

The Israeli Defense Forces said they were targeting a meeting of Hamas leadership, who were gathered in Qatar to discuss a ceasefire proposal put forward by the Trump administration.

“The members of the leadership who were attacked led the terrorist organization’s activities for years, and are directly responsible for carrying out the October 7 massacre and waging the war against the State of Israel,” the IDF stated.

Israeli sources told multiple outlets—including CNN and Israel’s Channel 12 that the United States had prior knowledge of the planned attack.

The attack comes just months after Trump toured Qatar, hailed the country as a close ally, and accepted that $400 million private jet from Qatari leadership.

Qatar, which has served as a primary mediator in hostage and ceasefire talks and hosts a major U.S. airbase, has condemned the strike as “criminal” and “cowardly.”

“This criminal attack constitutes a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms and a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents of Qatar,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari. “The State of Qatar affirms that it will not tolerate this reckless Israeli behavior and its continued tampering with regional security, as well as any action targeting its security and sovereignty. Investigations are underway at the highest level, and further details will be announced as soon as they become available.”

Hours after the attack, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt read a statement that expressed both approval of Israel’s actions and regret for the location (Israel bombed a residential neighborhood).

“This morning, the Trump administration was notified by the United States military that Israel was attacking Hamas, which very unfortunately, was located in a section of Doha, the capital of Qatar. Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or America’s goals,” Leavitt said. “However, eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal.... The president views Qatar as a strong ally, and friend of the United States, and feels very badly about the location of this attack. President Trump wants all of the hostages in Gaza, and the bodies of the dead, released, and this war to end now.”

Leavitt then refused to elaborate when asked about what prior knowledge Trump had regarding Israel’s attack, if any.

Qatar has already confirmed it is suspending its mediation between Israel and Hamas after the bombing. Israel’s attack may very well prolong Israel’s genocide of Palestinians and Hamas’s detainment of the remaining Israeli hostages. Israel seems to care less about the latter with each passing day.

Aside from that, this episode shows that (1) deference to Israel’s violence is still the Trump administration’s policy, and (2) no amount of groveling and gift-giving to Trump can stop you from getting backstabbed.

This story has been updated.

One Republican lawmaker known for pushing conspiracy theories suggested a surprising culprit behind President Donald Trump’s lewd birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein.

Speaking to CNN’s Manu Raju Monday, Representative Tim Burchett suggested that Trump’s apparent signature had been forged—by the dreaded autopen.

“I mean, anybody can do a signature. We’ve seen autopens they used quite a bit in the Biden administration. I’ve never known Trump to be much of an artist either, so I kind of draw that into question,” Burchett said.

While the crude drawing of a naked woman on Epstein’s note wasn’t exactly the work of an artist, Raju pointed out that Trump had been known to draw pictures.

“The thing is, it’s been there for four years and now it’s just come out,” Burchett continued. “I just don’t buy it.”

Trump and other Republicans have repeatedly pushed the conspiracy theory that staffers for former President Joe Biden frequently used an autopen, in an attempt to magically undo the work of the previous administration. Trump also claimed that he never uses an autopen, before admitting that he does, but “only for very unimportant papers.”

Now Burchett seems to be hoping he can use the president’s catchall undo button to discount the damning evidence that Trump wrote a creepy message to his close friend, the alleged sex trafficker. It’s worth noting that the Tennessee Republican has a tendency to boost conspiracy theories that drift into the mainstream, like a bill he introduced opposing weather modification.

On Monday, The Wall Street Journal published an image of Trump’s lewd 50th birthday letter to Epstein, after it was delivered to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee by lawyers for the alleged sex traffickers’s estate—sending the White House scrambling for any way to claim the letter was a fake.