MAMDAN-EASY STREET

Zohran Mamdani just notched a big win on child care, in his first week as NYC mayor. Will the rest of his ambitious agenda follow?

• New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has faced plenty of skeptics. The democratic socialist has vowed to freeze rent, open city-owned grocery stores, make buses free, and provide free child care to families. Even some supporters on the left have wondered if those goals might really be aspirations. But exactly one week after taking office, Mamdani’s team delivered a shocker on one of his signature promises.

• Mamdani rolled out a plan with Gov Kathy Hochul (D-NY) to give New York City parents free child care for 2-year-old and under. Hochul’s buy-in is significant: Critics feared that the mayor wouldn’t have the state’s backing for his plans, which could cost billions. Child care for infants and toddlers cost an average of $18,200 for city families last year, according to the city.

• “This is something that will transform the ability for working families to actually raise their kids here,” Mamdani told Pod Save America in an interview this morning. “The things that we said in the campaign, those were not just slogans.”

• Despite the fanfare, there’s more work to be done. The child care expansion still requires approval by the state legislature. After that, there are the challenges of implementing a big new plan, including the hiring of scores of teachers and other staffers. Still, this is serious progress — and more than many people expected, especially the haters.

• The rest of Mamdani’s agenda faces challenges ahead, too. He has never led a team larger than his state assembly staff, let alone the bureaucracy of America’s largest city. President Donald Trump may fawn over him for now, but that could change at any moment — especially if federal agents deploy to NYC. And New Yorkers famously blame the mayor for everything. “If a sparrow dies of a heart attack in Central Park, I’m responsible,” former Mayor Ed Koch once said.

• But for now, Mamdani might as well start quoting former NYC Mayor Eric Adams: “All my haters become my waiters when I sit down at the table of success.”

What A Day caught up with Mamdani shortly before he was sworn in. Here’s a meme that Hochul’s press office posted today, followed by my chat with the mayor:

Matt Berg: You recently became super famous. What’s your plan to stay normal?

Zohran Mamdani: While my life and routines have certainly changed, my work remains the same as it was in October 2024, when I launched our campaign. Many things keep me grounded — most of all, my wife Rama — but nothing keeps me as “normal” as the conversations I’m fortunate to have with New Yorkers every day.

And yet these moments constantly remind me that a “normal” life in New York is too often defined by bills New Yorkers cannot pay, stress that keeps them up at nights, and a future that feels uncertain. I wake up each morning feeling remarkably lucky that so many New Yorkers have entrusted me to improve their “normal.”

Adenai chai helps too.

MB: If you could go back to the start of 2025 and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?

ZM: Don’t eat a burrito on the subway. Or, at the very least, don’t document it.

[Editor’s Note: Mamdani came under fire for posting a photo of himself eating a sauceless burrito on the train with a plastic fork and knife. His response: “It’s been more than 12 hours since burritogate, and I just want to say, I hear you, I see you, and if you’re a burrito on the Q train, I eat you.”]

MB: What was the funniest thing that happened during your campaign?

ZM: When I was on the campaign trail, there was an Ed Koch quote I used pretty regularly: “If you agree with me on nine out of twelve issues, vote for me. Twelve out of twelve, see a psychiatrist.” And I’ll never forget a few days before the primary, I was in Washington Square Park with David Hogg and a young guy came up to me and went: “TWELVE OUT OF TWELVE, BABY! SEND ME AWAY!” Few things made me laugh quite as hard as that. Loved it!

MB: Do you have any New Year’s resolutions?

ZM: Fulfill the trust that New Yorkers have placed in me by lowering costs and delivering on our affordability agenda. Try to avoid eating dinner after 8 p.m. Make a dignified life possible for every person in this city. Stretch more. And break your knees less.

MB: What’s your Spotify Wrapped listening age?

ZM: Whatever age they assign a guy who listens to Usher’s ‘Love in This Club’ to get ready for debates.

MB: The big NYC band of the moment is Geese. Do you have a favorite song by them?

ZM: I wish that “Long Island City Here I Come” had existed when I was an assemblyman representing LIC in Albany.

[Editor’s note: The opening line of the song: “Nobody knows where they’re going… except me.”]

MARCO SOLO

Little Marco is making some Democratic lawmakers big mad.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is widely seen as a driving force behind Donald Trump’s imperialist agenda in Latin America, and an enabler of the president’s combative, expansionist instincts. What’s more, Democratic lawmakers say that his word means nothing.

Before the U.S. invaded Venezuela, Rubio privately assured senators that regime change wasn’t on the table. “You can’t trust this administration,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who attended the briefing last month, told me. “Even when they’re behind closed doors.”

Some now worry Rubio is in the middle of pulling yet another fast one. The secretary told lawmakers earlier this week that Trump isn’t about to invade Greenland, according to the Wall Street Journal. But after Venezuela, who can trust him?

“He’s turned out to be … a terrible secretary of state,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) told What A Day. “I don’t know that I would put him in the top ranks of the worst [cabinet members]. But nevertheless, he’s certainly not the secretary of state that I was hoping for.”

So, how hard would it really be for Trump’s team to take Greenland?

“Very easy,” Ivo Daalder, former U.S. ambassador to NATO under Obama, told What A Day. “He could declare that Greenland is now part of the U.S. He could deploy sufficient troops to control air and sea ports and enforce the law in the population centers. The legal status will be dubious (and complicated), but Greenland can become de facto part of the U.S. in a day.”

WHAT ELSE? 👀

MAGAworld is using new footage of the Minneapolis ICE shooting to claim that the agent who killed Renee Good was justified. “The reality is that his life was endangered and he fired in self defense,” Vice President JD Vance tweeted. But this clip hardly shows that. The video, recorded by the agent, shows the car backing up, and then moving forward as Good turns the steering wheel away from the officer, before the video jerks upward. In fact, Good’s last words to him were, “I’m not mad at you.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s (D-NY) take on the situation: “I understand that Vice President Vance believes shooting a young mother of three in the face three times is an acceptable America that he wants to live in, and I do not. That is a fundamental difference between Vice President Vance and I. I do not believe the American people should be assassinated in the street.”

The U.S. economy added 50,000 jobs last month, falling 20,000 short of economists’ predictions. The unemployment rate fell slightly, which is good news… but one year into Donald Trump’s presidency, things still ain’t lookin’ too hot.

Israeli forces killed 13 people, including a child, in the Gaza Strip, according to local officials. The attack, which allegedly targeted Hamas fighters, comes as Trump is expected to announce a so-called “Board of Peace” to oversee the so-called ceasefire.

Widespread protests have rocked Iran over the past week and killed over 60 people. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed the demonstrations are being led by people who are “ruining their own streets to make the president of another country happy,” referring to Trump. The U.S. is looking for signs that the protests could bring down the Iranian regime. But Khamenei stood firm: “Everyone should know that the Islamic Republic will not retreat.”

France is delaying this year’s G7 summit… to avoid conflicting with Trump’s White House UFC cage match that’s planned for his 80th birthday in June.

Trump hasn’t been able to score a Nobel Peace Prize of his own, but he may be able to grab a used one. He’s planning to meet with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado next week, after she told Fox News that she would give him her prize as a token of gratitude for ousting Nicolás Maduro. “It would be a great honor,” Trump said, adding that his own failure to win is “a major embarrassment to Norway.” Yes, he is clamoring for a peace prize at the same time he’s threatening to invade Greenland, because that’s how this guy rolls.

Just how toxic is the Trump-MTG split? Here’s a new indicator: The White House told the Secret Service that former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) may have tipped off protestors who surprised Trump at a D.C. restaurant last year. (She recommended the restaurant to Trump.) MTG is fuming: “I had ZERO knowledge of when his reservation was! The only people who could have tipped off Code Pink was the restaurant or the WH! And AGAIN, why didn’t Secret Service secure the restaurant BEFORE he went in????????” she tweeted.

LIGHT AT THE END… ☀️

More than 1,000 “ICE Out For Good” events are scheduled across the country this weekend to protest the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis. Check here to see if there’s a protest near you.

Democratic attorneys general in five blue states are suing the Trump administration over its freeze on $10 billion worth of child care funding.

Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot limited access to an image-altering function after the app was widely criticized for allowing users to undress women and girls in photos. This should’ve never been allowed at all, but at least the public pressure is working.

On that note: U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer wouldn’t rule out banning X, which hosts Grok, due to its lewd image generator. “This is disgraceful, it’s disgusting and it’s not to be tolerated. X has got to get a grip of this,” Starmer said in a radio interview. It’s called “X,” but it usually makes me say “Whyyyyyy!?...”

California is completely drought-free for the first time in 25 years, according to new government data. That’s a long dry spell!

Actress Amy Poehler’s podcast, “Good Hang,” has become incredibly popular less than a year after launching. How did she do it? Sure, Poehler’s joyful personality and the high-profile guests make it an entertaining listen (or watch). But the vibe of the show is what’s special. “It’s hard to watch it and not feel like part of the group — and just for a few minutes, no matter what’s going on in your life, feel transported to somewhere else,” the Washington Post writes.

Do we need more proof that dogs are geniuses? A West Virginia shelter’s surveillance camera caught Dawson, a 5-year-old pit bull mix, using his teeth to unlock the front door, escape into the night, and run back to his owner. The shelter offered to provide the owner with food, a bed, and other supplies for Dawson. “We’ve not had anything happen like that before,” the shelter director said. “That is one smart little dog.”

Meet Clio, another adorable rescue!

“She’s an American boxer and pit bull mix, who was born in a junkyard. After she was rescued, she passed through three different rescue organizations and multiple foster homes. We saw her in an online listing and reached out, and she’s been with us for two-plus years and will stay for the rest of her life.

Because of her background, she suffered a mental disorder. Her vision is poor, and she needs medication every day to control seizures. She’s anxious, and when she goes outside, someone has to stay out with her.

But she’s become comfortable with us. She knows she’s loved and she expresses her love for us in her own ways. She trusts, and that’s a first for her. She’s incredibly sweet, never barks, and she’s a true gem.”

— Jeff