The mayor has already secured one of his top campaign promises, among other wins on behalf of New Yorkers.Click to view this email in your browser. [link removed]

[link removed]

JANUARY 9, 2026

On the

**Prospect** website [link removed]

[link removed]

The Trump Regime Is Making Disasters Worse [link removed]

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem sat atop millions of dollars in flood prevention grants while the West Coast was being inundated. Now she’s slashing FEMA disaster response staff. [link removed]

**BY KENNY STANCIL** [link removed]

[link removed]

Republicans Reject Trump on Numerous Congressional Votes [link removed]

In the House and Senate, the Trump position was snubbed. The impact isn’t definitive, but the trend is unmistakable. [link removed]

**BY DAVID DAYEN** [link removed]

[link removed]

Where Trump’s Imperialism Could Strike Next [link removed]

Greenland, Colombia, Cuba, Iran … all are at risk from an unchecked president. [link removed]

**BY ELLEN IOANES** [link removed]

****DAYEN ON TAP****

**Mamdani’s first week**

**The mayor has already secured one of his top campaign promises, among other wins on behalf of New Yorkers.**

It has been an exhausting week, with kidnappings of foreign leaders and murders of random Americans by trigger-happy cosplaying warrior cops. And quietly, behind all that hysteria, a new leader has had a hell of an opening week.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani began the week with the same impulse that animated his campaign: listening to New Yorkers who tell him about the struggles of living in an expensive city with an imbalance of political and economic power. Two **executive orders** [link removed]- took aim at junk fees and subscription traps, two of life’s little indignities whereby companies extract cash not by creating worthwhile products but by cheating and outwitting their customers. Primarily the orders just empower the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, now under the direction of **former top Lina Khan aide Sam Levine** [link removed], to enforce the law against these deceptive practices. “[This week’s] order and Commissioner Levine’s comments are sending the message that Mayor Mamdani is serious about using multiple tools to carry out his affordability agenda,” said Erin Witte, a senior fellow with Protect Borrowers.

In doing so, Mamdani is essentially substituting for the federal government, which stopped enforcing consumer protections, including ending hidden fees and ensuring the ease of canceling subscriptions, approximately on Inauguration Day 2025. Mamdani is also holding “**rental rip-off hearings** [link removed]” to hear from tenants living under substandard conditions and facing any number of housing fees. Direct testimony like this can inform future action.

Separately, key Mamdani ally New York Attorney General Tish James is **questioning Instacart’s variable pricing tests** [link removed] that were the subject of a pathbreaking investigation by Groundwork Collaborative and Consumer Reports. At least in New York, consumer protection law exists.

[link removed]

But the big win in week one came from an **agreement with Gov. Kathy Hochul** [link removed] to expand free, universal child care, a core promise of Mamdani’s campaign. A $4.5 billion statewide commitment in year one will universalize child care for all four-year-olds by 2028, according to Hochul. Mamdani will be able to use the funds to make 3-K universal for three-year-olds in New York City, and initiate a “2-Care” program for two-year-olds that would start with 2,000 kids and expand annually until it becomes universal in year four. None of these programs would be means-tested.

It’s not perfect: Only two years of funding has been fully committed, and the state legislature will have to approve it. Hochul managed to find the money for the first two years without higher taxes, but that may not hold indefinitely, as some stable funding source will be needed. Plus, it comes at a time when President Trump has paused some child care funding for New York and other blue states, though that is being **challenged in court** [link removed].

But many observers sniffed that Mamdani’s big ideas would surely fizzle once they came into contact with a hard-nosed political system. It turns out that he was the realistic one, and the critics were naïve. “To those who think that the promises of a campaign cannot survive once confronted with the realities of government, today is your answer,” Mamdani said at a press conference this week.

While national media fumes about Mamdani daring to **host a news conference with influencers** [link removed] or **meeting with Steven Spielberg** [link removed], and a right-wing witch hunt **targets individual staffers** [link removed], it’s the substance of improving lives in the city that will maintain the mayor’s relationship to voters. And he’s fighting so they can have options for taking care of their children, so they aren’t ripped off by a gym membership, so they can be **safer from onrushing cars when crossing the street** [link removed]. That’s a pretty damn good start.

David Dayen
Executive Editor

David Dayen
Executive Editor

[link removed]

To receive this newsletter directly in your inbox, click here to subscribe. [link removed]

[link removed]

[link removed]

[link removed]

[link removed]

[link removed]

The American Prospect, Inc., 1225 I Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC xxxxxx, United States
Copyright (c) 2026 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.

To manage your newsletter preferences, use our preference management page [link removed].

To unsubscribe from all American Prospect emails, including newsletters, follow this link to unsubscribe [link removed].

Sent to: [email protected]

Unsubscribe [link removed]

The American Prospect, Inc., 1225 I Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC xxxxxx, United States