View this post on the web at [link removed]

Zohran Mamdani gave a command to Donald Trump, “I have four words for you: Turn the volume up!”
Donald Trump obeyed, posting in all caps, “…AND SO IT BEGINS!”
Good boy, Donnie! We know you haven’t heard those words enough. Sure, you’ve got a lot of toadies constantly dishing out hyperbolic praise in an effort to prove they are your most loyal lackey, but no one comes out and says that you are a good boy.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, 30 April 2025:
“President, your first 100 days has far exceeded that of any other Presidency in this country ever. Ever. Never seen anything like it. Thank you.”
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, at the same meeting:
“You’re not just courageous. You’re actually fearless.”
Those over-the-top compliments are good for soothing a president’s insecurities, but they don’t imply moral goodness, which is important for a person who seems more and more concerned about getting into Heaven. Donald does have his Trump Bible, and I have a feeling he will learn whether that helped him when he meets Saddam Hussein—who had a Qur’an written in his own blood—in the afterlife.
Punching Up is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger made the governor’s race a referendum on Donald Trump. In New York City, Donald Trump made the mayoral election a referendum on Donald Trump. And in California, the redistricting referendum was a referendum on Donald Trump. Exit polls showed that most California voters disliked gerrymandering by either party, but they held their noses and voted for it anyway. The measure passed with over 60% of the vote.
New Jersey voters were smart enough to elect the only candidate who had landed a helicopter on a ship—always a good choice. Mikie Sherrill, like Spanberger in Virginia, garnered almost 60% of the vote.
Still, it was the race for mayor of New York City that captured the most attention and featured the most colorful characters. Just over two weeks prior to the election, Trump commuted the prison sentence of New York City’s own George Santos, the most comically corrupt congressman in generations. Then the corrupt current mayor of New York City, who is no longer under federal investigation thanks to Donald Trump, endorsed the handsy guy who used to be governor.
And presto, Mayor-elect Mamdani.
Thanks for reading Punching Up! This post is public so feel free to share it.
Jeff Bezos’s Washington Post Editorial Board produced a truly horrible editorial [ [link removed] ] about the meaning of Mamdani’s rise on Monday. They implied that Mamdani was not a real American by emphasizing that the United States is his “adopted country.”
“The young politician was born into a life of wealth and privilege, and from that perch he adopted a worldview centered around destroying the economic system that made his adopted country thrive.”
Then the Post added this curious sentence:
“And while he no longer defends eliminationist rhetoric about Jews, he remains fixated with Israel.”
First, I could find no example of Mamdani defending “eliminationist rhetoric.” Second, Mamdani hasn’t been fixated with Israel; the press has been fixated on asking Mamdani about Israel.
Finally, the Post turned to the billionaire’s plea, insinuating that New Yorkers don’t understand economics or the “American system:”
“Supporters of free markets have failed to articulately make their case in New York, and Mamdani’s success is a warning to business-friendly Democrats that they’ll have to do better. It’s not enough to say socialism is bad; defenders of the American system have to show why people’s lives are improved by economic freedom — and why many American failures are often the result of government intervention rather than a free market run amok.
. . .
“It seems that there are enough voters to put him in power — but if New Yorkers begin to flee in droves, it could force him to moderate.”
I would like to know how the editorial board defines “business-friendly” and “socialism.” They imply that socialism means no economic freedom and no free market. As arguments go, “socialism is bad” seems pretty weak for an established newspaper, and “many American failures are often the result of government intervention rather than a free market run amok” is a questionable assertion. The Great Recession was caused by the free market run amok and financial “innovations” of a sort we are seeing again now.
Voters are displeased with the “American system” and the people running it. They want improvers, not defenders, of our economic, social, and political systems. They want good governance that addresses their concerns instead of conveying wealth and power continuously upward.
At a Democratic-NPL fundraiser last Thursday, I talked about a compliment I received from an Iraqi man in 2003 when he came to my unit’s headquarters in Al Kut, Iraq to give me some information on a weapons cache. As we sat down, he said, “Major Hammer, I hear that you are a good and moral man.” I believe that most of us are good and moral people, and the people at that fundraiser and at protests around the country want a good and moral country lead by good and moral people.
That is not good news for Donald Trump.
Mamdani ended his victory speech to the sound of a Bollywood song, “Dhoom Machale,” which means something akin to “raise the roof” or “make some noise.” His victory and the elections in NJ, VA, and California have given Democrats something to celebrate. Donald Trump will certainly make his own all-caps noise about it soon enough and ad nauseam until the 2026 midterm elections.
And so it begins

Unsubscribe [link removed]?